Bibliographic description:

Nesterova I.A. The feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya [Electronic resource] // Educational encyclopedia site

The Great Patriotic War became a difficult test for the Soviet people. Countless deeds in the name of the Fatherland showed the strength of the Soviet character and the unbending will to freedom. One of the most dramatic feats of the beginning of the war is the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

The story of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

The future intelligence officer Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was born in the small village of Osino-Gai, Gavrilovsky district, Tambov region. In 1930, Zoya and her family moved to Moscow. It is noteworthy that the grandfather of Kosmodemyanskaya was a priest. He was executed during the difficult times of the Civil War. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya studied at a Moscow school. At the beginning of the war, namely in 1941, Zoya was a tenth grader. At the beginning of the war, a serious danger hung over our capital. During this difficult time, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, on her own initiative, went to the district committee of the Komsomol in order to get into a detachment of Komsomol members who were supposed to carry out operations in the rear. Eighteen-year-old Zoya successfully passed the selection for participation in partisan activities. Together with her, about two thousand volunteers went to the training.

In November 1941, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, as part of a large sabotage group, was sent on a serious mission. It was aimed at undermining the food base of the fascist troops located in the rear. Together with another sabotage detachment, the partisans had to destroy 10 villages in 7 days, which were located behind enemy lines.

On November 27, 1941, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Vasily Klubkov were sent to the village of Petrishchevo. The detachment commander decided that it was impossible to enter the settlement due to the fact that the Germans had mined all the approaches. He gave the order not to carry out the operation on the territory of Petrishchev.

However, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and her two comrades Boris and Vasily decided to break into the village. They carried out several successful arson attacks. During the operation, the fighters lost each other. In Petrishchevo, Kosmodemyanskaya disabled the communication center and was captured by the Nazis. As it was later established, the young partisan spoiled the communication center, which made it impossible for some German units occupying positions near Moscow to interact.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was treacherously betrayed by a local resident, namely the peasant S. Sviridov. After the village was liberated from the Nazi occupation, Sviridov was shot.

The execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

Angered by the constant sorties of partisans, the Nazis treated Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in accordance with their bestial nature - the poor girl was tortured, doused with ice water in the cold. Zoya did not say a word to the enemies. The Nazis were furious. They prepared a gallows in the center of the village and hung Zoya in front of the entire settlement.

Not everyone was happy with Zoe's exploits. Some villagers, due to their irresponsibility, blamed Zoya for their troubles. For this they deservedly were subsequently shot. Before the execution, a sign "Arsonist" was hung around Zoya's neck. Until her death, the girl did not flinch.

Fascist non-humans sneered at the body of the unfortunate Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The body hung for a month in the cold.

On the same day with Zoya, just ten kilometers from Petrishchevo, the Nazis also executed her friend in the sabotage squad, Vera Voloshina.

The memory of the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

The whole country learned about the heroic deed of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya after the publication of an article by Pyotr Lidov "Tanya" in the Pravda newspaper in 1942. The title of the article is due to the fact that during the torture Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya called herself Tanya. Witnesses of those events confirmed this to the journalist. Zoya's feat has become a symbol of the courage of the Russian people. On February 16, 1942, Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In honor of the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, museums were opened and monuments were erected throughout the USSR. In many cities there are streets named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. In 1943, a lilac variety was named after the heroine of the Soviet people.

The village of Petrishchevo in the Ruzsky district of the Moscow region, as part of the rural settlement of Dorohovskoe. The population is 28 people. Now in the village of Petrishchevo there is a monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and a museum. Both of them require restoration as of 2018.

The feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is remembered today. No matter how hard our Western partners try to devalue the significance of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, no matter how much our liberals shout that there was no feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya - all this is perceived in Russia only as howling hyenas.

The Russian people cherish the memory of their heroes. Of course, there are exceptions, such as, for example, the boy Kolya from Urengoy, but these are rather sad exceptions associated with gaps in modern Russian education, insufficient professionalism of teachers and the consequences of the dashing nineties.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is the first girl in the USSR who was awarded the highest state award - Hero of the Soviet Union, for her significant services to the Motherland.

In addition, Zoya, who sacrificed herself for the future of the country and the people, became one of the symbols of the Red Army. Some publications even called the heroine of the Union the Soviet Joan of Arc.

Childhood and family

Zoya was born on September 13, 1923 in one of the small villages in the Tambov region, in the family of a priest. Zoya had a younger brother, Alexander. In 1930

Kosmodemyansky moved to Moscow, mother (Lyubov Timofeevna) worked as a teacher at school, father (Anatoly Petrovich) got a job at the Timiryazev Academy. It would seem that life is getting better, but in 1933 his father dies.

Sasha was 16 years old when his sister Zoya died. He began to ask for the front, because of his young age they did not take him. He received permission in April 1942.

After studying at the Ulyanovsk Military School, he went to the front in 1943. He died on April 13, 1945 from an enemy fragment. As his own terrible sister, he was awarded the same high award for his merits - the hero of the USSR.

Zoya studied well at school, and especially she was given such humanities as history and, most of all, literature. She planned to connect her life with literature, planning to enter the Literary Institute.

In 1939, Zoe suffered a severe nervous outburst, after which she was suspected of schizophrenia. However, there were no further such messages.

Military service and the feat of Zoya

Zoya entered the service a few months after the outbreak of hostilities. On October 31, the heroine of her own free will, consisting of two thousand volunteers, went to serve in the Red Army and was enrolled in a reconnaissance and sabotage unit, which in the future should be thrown behind enemy lines.

Zoya went to work, even knowing about the risk factor for which she subscribes. The authorities said that the task they would face would not let them go alive - they were immediately warned that most likely they were suicide bombers. Before the assignment, Zoe and the others were told that they could be captured and face a painful death. Anyone who is not ready for such a step had to leave the reconnaissance unit.

Despite such information, Zoya decided to continue serving in this particular unit, a few days later, together with her comrades, she completed the task of mining an important railway for the Germans.

Stalin decided to use scorched earth tactics against his opponent in order to undermine the morale of the Wehrmacht from the inside before launching a large-scale offensive. By his order, special groups of fighters were created, the main task of which is to destroy the most important apartments of the Germans so that there is no heat and food for the enemy.

Zoya's superiors were tasked with burning 10 settlements in just five to seven days. Kosmodemyanskaya became a member of one of the groups that were instructed to set fire to houses with the help of bottles with a combustible mixture. The assignment clearly stated that the houses could be very well guarded - a large number of enemy infantry with automatic weapons and even machine guns. But even despite this, the authorities issued only pistols to the fighters, including Zoe.

For the operation, the saboteurs were given a bottle of vodka so that they could warm themselves in the forest until the right moment. Late at night on November 27, Zoya, together with Boris Krainov and Vasily Klubkov, set fire to three wooden houses, and also neutralized about twenty horses that the German army needed to supply various supplies and weapons.

After the arson, the Germans raised the entire village, Klubkov was captured. All members of the sabotage group did not meet in a conventional place. Then Zoya decided to return to fulfill the order to set fire to all the inns. But the Germans posted guards, the girl was noticed and captured. And Krainov, who did not wait for his comrades, returned to the partisans.

Captivity and death

The person who raised the alarm at the sight of Zoya - a certain resident of the village of Sviridov, received only a miserable bottle of vodka as a reward for his act. After Sviridov falls into Soviet captivity in the future, he will be shot for treason.

And Zoya was immediately taken for interrogation to one of the surviving houses, where three German officers had already gathered. They were cruel to the captive girl, but the heroine did not even give her real name, not to mention the plans for the operation. According to eyewitnesses, the Germans undressed Zoya and then beat her with belts on her naked body. Then the girl was driven through the frost, because of which she received frostbite on her legs.

One of the Wehrmacht soldiers showed pity and allowed the captive girl to lie down on the bench and even covered her with a blanket. Several villagers, whose houses had been set on fire by the saboteur, also took part in the beating of Zoya. After the Red Army again took possession of the village, the women who participated in the beating of Zoya were put on trial and shot as traitors.

The next morning, Zoya, posing as Tanya, was hanged in front of the whole village. Before her death, the girl made a speech that the Russian people must continue to fight and that all Germans would be destroyed as soon as the Red Army came here. During the execution of Zoya, a photographer was present who captured these events. Later, these pictures were indeed found in one of the Wehrmacht soldiers already during the offensive of the Red Army. It is known that the body of the deceased saboteur hung in the cold for another month. Zoya was buried outside the village by local residents.

Heritage

I learned about the feat of the Soviet saboteur very soon - already at the end of January 1942, an article appeared in the press where a certain Tanya threatened the Germans while they were hanging her. Then the identity of the deceased girl was established, and very soon, for her courage and loyalty, the Motherland of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union.

At the time of her death, young Zoya was only eighteen years old. Then millions of soldiers of the Red Army, and then the whole country, learned about her death. Her death became like a battle cry, after which volunteers in the Red Army increased significantly - among them there were a huge number of women who found out about the feat of their sister.

After the victory over the Nazis in 1945, the feat of a young girl who did not say anything to the Germans and did not betray the Motherland was revered throughout the country. In addition to numerous literary works, music and films, hundreds of monuments were erected throughout the Union, dozens of schools and hundreds of streets that still bear the name of Zoya Kosmedemyanskaya.

• Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became a national hero not only of the Soviet Union, but also of Burma. One of the leaders of the liberation movement in the country chose the image of a Soviet girl as an example for his people, who, like her, must be ready for anything, for the sake of their freedom;
• There is an assumption that Zoya was captured in the house not by chance - according to some information, one of his comrades who was captured and began to cooperate with the enemy could hand him over to the Germans. It is currently impossible to accurately determine the fact of betrayal due to lack of information. In 1942, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, suspected of treason, was captured by the Red Army and shot for treason. The reason was the presence of a traitor during the interrogation of the heroine, although there is no clear evidence of this fact.

In 2015, all mankind will celebrate the end of one of the most terrible wars in its history. Especially a lot of suffering in the early 1940s fell to the lot of the Soviet people, and it was the inhabitants of the USSR who showed the world examples of unprecedented heroism, stamina and love for the Motherland. For example, to this day, the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya has not been forgotten, a brief summary of the history of which is presented below.

background

On November 17, 1941, when the Nazis were on the outskirts of Moscow, it was decided to use the Scythian tactics against the invaders. In this regard, an order was issued ordering the destruction of all settlements behind enemy lines in order to deprive him of the opportunity to spend the winter in comfortable conditions. To fulfill the order, several sabotage groups were formed from among the fighters of the special partisan unit 9903 as soon as possible. This military unit, specially created at the end of October 1941, consisted mainly of Komsomol volunteers who underwent a rigorous selection. In particular, each of the young people was interviewed and warned that they would be required to perform tasks involving mortal risk.

A family

Before telling who Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya Anatolyevna was, whose feat made her a symbol of the heroism of the Soviet people, it is worth knowing some interesting facts about her parents and other ancestors. So, the first woman who received the title during the Second World War was born in a family of teachers. However, for a long time the fact was hidden that the paternal ancestors of the girl were clergymen. Interestingly, in 1918, her grandfather, who was a priest in the church of the village of Osino-Gai, where Zoya was later born, was brutally tortured and drowned in a pond by the Bolsheviks. The Kosmodemyansky family spent some time in Siberia, as the girl's parents feared arrest, but soon returned and settled in the capital. Three years later, Zoya's father died, and he and his brother were in the care of their mother.

Biography

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, all the truth and lies about whose feat became known to the public relatively recently, was born in 1923. After returning from Siberia, she studied at school N 201 in Moscow and was especially fond of humanitarian subjects. The girl's dream was to enter the university, but she was destined for a completely different fate. In 1940, Zoya suffered a severe form of meningitis and underwent a rehabilitation course at a specialized sanatorium in Sokolniki, where she met Arkady Gaidar.

When in 1941 a recruitment of volunteers was announced to complete the partisan unit 9903, Kosmodemyanskaya was one of the first to go for an interview and successfully passed it. After that, she and about 2,000 other Komsomol members were sent to special courses, and then transferred to the Volokolamsk region.

The feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya: a summary

On November 18, the commanders of two sabotage groups of HF No. 9903, P. Provorov and B. Krainov, received an order to destroy 10 settlements located behind enemy lines within a week. As part of the first of them, the Red Army soldier Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya also went on a mission. The groups were fired upon by the Germans near the village of Golovkovo, and due to heavy losses, they had to unite under the command of Krainov. Thus, the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was accomplished at the end of the autumn of 1941. More precisely, on her last assignment to the village of Petrishchevo, the girl went on the night of November 27, along with the group commander and fighter Vasily Klubkov. They set fire to three residential buildings along with stables, destroying 20 invaders' horses. In addition, subsequently, witnesses spoke about another feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. It turns out that the girl managed to incapacitate, which made it impossible for some German units occupying positions near Moscow to interact.

captivity

An investigation into the events that took place in Petrishchev at the end of November 1941 showed that Krainov did not wait for Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Vasily Klubkov and returned to his own. The girl herself, not finding her comrades in the agreed place, decided to continue fulfilling the order on her own and again went to the village on the evening of November 28. This time she failed to carry out the arson, as she was captured by the peasant S. Sviridov and handed over to the Germans by him. The Nazis, enraged by constant sabotage, began torturing the girl, trying to find out from her how many more partisans were operating in the Petrishchevo area. Investigators and historians, whose subject of study was the immortal feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, also found that two local residents took part in her beating, whose houses she set on fire the day before she was captured.

execution

On the morning of November 29, 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya was brought to the place where the gallows was built. A sign hung around her neck with an inscription in German and Russian, which said that the girl was a house arsonist. On the way, Zoya was attacked by one of the peasant women who were left homeless through her fault, and hit her on the legs with a stick. Then several German soldiers began to photograph the girl. Subsequently, the peasants, who were driven to see the execution of the saboteur, told the investigators about another feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The summary of their testimony is as follows: before they put a noose around her neck, the fearless patriot made a short speech in which she called for fighting the Nazis, and ended it with words about the invincibility of the Soviet Union. The body of the girl was on the gallows for about a month and was buried by local residents only on the eve of the New Year.

Recognition of a feat

As already mentioned, immediately after Petrishchevo was liberated, a special commission arrived there. The purpose of her visit was to identify the corpse and interrogate those who personally saw the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Briefly, all the testimony was recorded on paper and sent to Moscow for further investigation. After studying these and other materials, the girl was posthumously awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union by Stalin personally. The order was published by all the newspapers published in the USSR, and the whole country learned about it.

"Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya", M. M. Gorinov. New details about the feat

After the collapse of the USSR, a lot of “sensational” articles appeared in the press, in which everyone and everything was blackened. This cup did not pass and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. As the well-known researcher of Russian and Soviet history M. M. Gorinov notes, one of the reasons for this was the suppression and falsification of some facts of the biography of a brave girl in the Soviet period for ideological reasons. In particular, since it was considered a shame for a Red Army soldier, including Zoya, to be captured, a version was launched that her partner, Vasily Klubkov, had betrayed her. During the first interrogations, this young man did not report anything of the kind. But then he suddenly decided to confess and said that he had indicated her whereabouts to the Germans in exchange for her life. And this is just one example of the juggling of facts in order not to tarnish the image of the heroine-martyr, although Zoya's feat did not need such an adjustment at all.

Thus, when cases of falsification and suppression of the truth became known to the general public, some unfortunate journalists, in pursuit of cheap sensations, began to present them in a distorted form. In particular, in order to belittle the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a summary of whose history is presented above, emphasis was placed on the fact that she was undergoing therapy in a sanatorium specializing in the treatment of nervous diseases. Moreover, as in the children's game “broken phone”, the diagnosis changed from publication to publication. So, if in the first “revealing” articles it was written that the girl was unbalanced, then in the subsequent ones they began to call her almost a schizophrenic, who, even before the war, repeatedly set fire to

Now you know what the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya consisted of, which is rather difficult to describe briefly and without emotion. After all, no one can remain indifferent to the fate of an 18-year-old girl who was martyred for the sake of the liberation of her homeland.

Zoya was born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osino-Gai, Tambov Region. In 1929, together with her family, she began to live in Siberia. During her school years, she began to suffer from a nervous disease, and in 1940 she fell ill with meningitis. Then, in the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a rehabilitation course was completed (in a sanatorium she met Arkady Gaidar), and later she graduated from school.

In October 1941, she ended up in the Sprogis sabotage school. Becoming a member of the reconnaissance partisan unit, she successfully completed her first military assignment. The next operation, the purpose of which was to rid the villages of the German invaders, turned out to be more difficult. The group, which included Zoya, set fire to several houses with the Germans. Then, breaking away from the group, Zoya was detained while trying to set fire to another house.

Then, in the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, severe tortures took place, but the girl did not even give her real name. The execution of Kosmodemyanskaya withstood proudly. Even with a rope around her neck, she made speeches praising her homeland.

Later, the biography of Kosmodemyanskaya became widely known in the USSR thanks to an article in Pravda. And on February 16, 1942, she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

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Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was the first woman to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II. And not just appropriated, but created the biggest legend in the history of the war. Who does not know Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Everyone knows ... and, oddly enough, no one knows. What does everyone know:

“Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya Anatolyevna, born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osinovye Gai, Tambov Region, died on November 29, 1941 in the village of Petrishchevo, Vereisky District, Moscow Region. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded on February 16, 1942, posthumously. In 1938 she joined the Komsomol. Student of the 201st Moscow secondary school. In October 1941, she voluntarily joined a partisan fighter detachment. Near the village of Obukhovo, Naro-Fominsk District, she crossed the front line with a group of Komsomol partisans. At the end of November 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya was caught while performing a combat mission and, after torture, was executed by the Germans. She became the first woman - Hero of the Soviet Union and the heroine of a massive propaganda campaign. It was alleged that before her death, Kosmodemyanskaya delivered a speech that ended with the words: "Long live Comrade Stalin." Many streets, collective farms, pioneer organizations are named after her.

Many people know this data, but they cannot answer the questions that some people have more than once:

• As it was proved that the girl captured in Petrishchevo is Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya


• Where did the sabotage group, which included Tanya-Zoya, go?


• How exactly Tanya-Zoya was caught


• Were the Germans in Petrishchevo at the time of the unsuccessful arson?


• Where Tanya-Zoya was hanged.

November 1941. The Germans are 30 kilometers from Moscow. The hastily assembled divisions of the people's volunteer corps rose to the defense of Moscow and blocked the path of the enemy's bloodless divisions. Everyone who could hold a weapon was sent to the trenches, and those who could not, used the scorched earth tactics behind the front line. Everything that could somehow delay the German offensive was burned. That is why the Komsomol saboteurs had no weapons, no grenades and mines, but only bottles of gasoline. If the command does not feel sorry for its saboteurs, will it feel sorry for civilians, whose houses should burn down and not get to the Germans, even theoretically. Civilians ended up in a temporarily occupied territory, which means they are accomplices of the invaders, so there is nothing to deal with them. Civilians, mostly old people, women and children were not to blame for anything, these are the vicissitudes of war. When the front line passed through the same Petrishchevo, most of the village was destroyed and all the surviving residents huddled in several huts. Everyone remembers the winter of 1941 with its fierce cold. In such a cold to be left without a home is certain death.

Members of the sabotage group were given the task of burning down the village. If someone thinks that the partisan girl lay quietly on the edge of the forest edge and watched all the movements in the village through binoculars, then she is deeply mistaken. In such a cold, you won’t lie down especially. The main task is to run to the first house that comes across, set it on fire, and is there anyone there, is it not, it’s either lucky or ... unlucky. Nobody cares if there are Germans in the village or not at all. The main thing is to complete the task. For the fulfillment of this task, a Komsomol saboteur was caught, who later called herself Tanya. It was not possible to establish by whom she was caught. But if so far no documents have been found in the German archives that they were Wehrmacht soldiers, then they were not them. Civilians can be understood - they fought for their lives.

Why is the real name of the girl still not known for certain? The answer is simple in its tragedy. All sabotage groups abandoned in this area died and it is not possible to document who this Tanya was. But such trifles did not bother anyone, the country needed Heroes. When the news of the hanged partisan reached the political administration, they sent to Petrishchevo, after his release, correspondents of not even front-line newspapers, but central ones - Pravda and Komsomolskaya Pravda. Correspondents also liked everything that happened in Petrishchevo. On January 27, 1942, the material "Tanya" was published by Pyotr Lidov in Pravda. On the same day, S. Lyubimov's material was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda "We will not forget you, Tanya." On February 18, 1942, Pyotr Lidov published the material "Who was Tanya" in Pravda. The top leadership of the country approved the material, and she was immediately awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, her cult was created, the events in Petrishchev were embellished, reinterpreted and distorted, over the years a memorial was created, schools were named after her, everyone knew her.

True, sometimes it came to an incident: "The director and teachers of school No. 201 in Moscow named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya reported that in organizing and conducting excursions to the place of execution and the grave of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the existing shortcomings should be eliminated. To the village of Petrishchevo, where Zoya was brutally tortured by the Nazis ", many excursions come, most of the participants of which are children, teenagers. But no one directs these excursions. The excursions are accompanied by Voronina E.P., 72 years old, in whose house the headquarters was located, where Zoya was interrogated and tortured, and citizen Kulik P. Ya ., who had Zoya before the execution. In their explanations about Zoya's actions on the instructions of the partisan detachment, they note her courage, courage and steadfastness. At the same time, they say: "If she had continued to go to us, she would have brought a lot of loss village, would burn many houses and livestock. "In their opinion, this, perhaps, Zoya should not have done. In explaining how Zoya was captured and captured, they say:" We really expected that Zoya I will definitely be released by the partisans, and were very surprised when this did not happen. Such an explanation does not contribute to the correct education of young people. Only in perestroika times began to reach deaf data that not everything is fine in the "Kingdom of Denmark". According to the recollections of the few remaining local residents, Tanya-Zoya was not arrested by the Germans, but captured by the peasants, who were outraged that she set fire to their houses and outbuildings. The peasants took her to the commandant's office, located in another village (there were no Germans at all where she was captured). After the liberation, most of the residents of Petrishchev and the surrounding villages, who had at least some relation to this incident, were taken to an unknown direction. The first question about the reliability of the feat was raised by the writer Alexander Zhovtis, who placed the story of the writer Nikolai Ivanov in Arguments and Facts. Residents of Petrishchev allegedly caught Zoya setting fire to a peaceful peasant hut and, after beating him pretty badly, turned to the Germans for justice. And it was as if there were no Germans camping in Petrishchev, but, having heeded the request of the village population, they came from the village nearby and protected the people from the partisans, which involuntarily won their sympathy. Elena Senyavskaya from the Institute of Russian History believes that Tanya was not Zoya: "I personally know people who still believed that the partisan Tanya, who was executed by the Germans in the village of Petrishchevo, was not Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya." There is a fairly convincing version that the Komsomol member Lily Azolina called herself Tanya. On that day, Vera Voloshina was also hanged in Petrishchevo, whom for some reason everyone forgot about.

But where did Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya come from? Gradually, everything turned into a tragedy. V. Leonidov writes: “The Germans left. After some time, a commission arrived in the village, with 10 women with it. They dug up Tanya. No one identified their daughter in the corpse, they buried her again. Union. Shortly after this decree, a commission arrived with other women. They pulled Tanya out of the grave for the second time. The performance began. Each woman in Tanya identified her daughter. Tears, lamentations for the deceased. And then, to the surprise of all the villagers, a fight broke out for the right to recognize the deceased her daughter. Everyone was dispersed by a long and thin woman, who later turned out to be Kosmodemyanskaya. So Tanya became Zoya. "
There are several iconic moments in this story that add up to a very ambiguous version.

First, for the first time, a commission arrived with 10 candidates for the position of mother-heroine. The articles of Lidov and Lyubimov created a loud legend, and there were oh so many missing girl partisans. The press often published a trophy photograph of an unknown Komsomol member with a noose around her neck. Why did no one identify their daughter, and the correspondents did not take a posthumous photograph. There is only one answer - the body was in such a state that they considered it best to bury it. But the question could not hang in the air for long. They were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and these are pensions, benefits, fame, awards. Therefore, the future mother-heroines went for the second time not to restore historical justice and identify their own child, but to declare themselves as a mother-heroine. That's why the show came about. So the country found Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

Elena Senyavskaya from the Institute of Russian History believes that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya really existed and was even sent to the German rear, but did not die, although her fate is bitter. When our advancing troops released Zoya from the German concentration camp and she returned home, her mother did not accept her and kicked her out. In the photo of the hanged "Tanya" published in the newspapers, it was many women who recognized their daughter - and there would apparently be a thousand times more if Pravda and Komsomolskaya Pravda were read in every house, if the potential "heroine's mothers" had documents there were precisely daughters, and precisely of the appropriate age, and if they had gone as volunteers to fight. The "mother of the heroine" is recognizable - not so much because she threw her daughter out of the house in need of help, and then gave interviews for decades on the topic of how to raise the young to become Heroes, but because she was able to achieve recognition of her place in the system. Then a campaign began to glorify the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, her mother Lyubov Timofeevna actively joined the campaign, continuously speaking and being elected to various committees and councils of different levels.

The second is why she was hanged, and not just hanged, but tortured with particular cruelty. Tanya-Zoya did not inflict any damage on the German army and was too young to be trusted with secret information. Was she captured along with Vera Voloshina, or was there a third girl, the real Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was sent to a concentration camp? The fact of execution and torture can be explained by only one assumption: the girls pretty much burned houses in Petrishchevo and neighboring villages. Reliably, we will never know the whole truth, there are too many questions.