Hero of the Soviet Union Oktyabrskaya Maria Vasilievna: biography, awards, feat and interesting facts

Hero of the Soviet Union Oktyabrskaya Maria Vassilievna immortalized her name with several feats during the Great Patriotic War. She became a mechanic-driver of the T-34 tank, assembled for her money and named "Battle girlfriend". The image of Maria Oktyabrskaya remains one of the most famous in the series names of heroes and heroines of the war against the Nazis.

early years

Maria Oktyabrskaya was born on August 16, 1905 in the Crimea. Her parents were peasants. In the 1930s they were dekulakized and sent to the Urals. Maria stayed in the Crimea. She lived and worked in Simferopol. Was an operator at the city station.

In 1925 the girl married a cadet-cavalry officer Ilya Ryadnenko. In the registry office, the spouses decided to take a new name for the October Revolution in honor of the Socialist Revolution. The husband was a military man, which meant that the family needed to change the address regularly - together with the parts where the service was held.

Oktyabrskaya Maria tried to keep up with her husband. She was a member of the women's councils of military units. In addition, the girl has learned to provide medical help by taking appropriate courses. Maria also became a chauffeur and a machine gunner. In 1940, the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia. After that, the October family moved to Chisinau, where the regiment of her husband was stationed.

In the evacuation

And next summer the Great Patriotic War began. Wehrmacht without warning invaded the Soviet Union, hoping to catch the enemy by surprise, and by autumn to be in Moscow. In the USSR, a hasty mobilization of all those able to hold arms began.

Maria Oktyabrskaya's husband, as a regular military man, was at the front in the very first days of the conflict. His wife and her sister were in evacuation in Tomsk. In this Siberian city, Oktyabrskaya Maria Vasilyevna, by an old habit, worked as a telephone operator in an artillery school, which moved to the rear from Leningrad.

The death of her husband

Ilya Oktyabrsky was killed at the front on August 9, 1941. The funeral came to the wife, in which it was reported that her husband had fallen under a machine-gun fire in a battle near Kiev. The news was overwhelming, but not surprising. The Red Army suffered huge losses throughout the war, and in the first months of the German offensive, these numbers were particularly high.

All the 1941 military registration and enlistment offices were full of people who wanted to go to the front. Among them was Maria Oktyabrskaya. The hero of the Soviet Union (the award was attributed to her posthumously) wanted to go to the battle as quickly as possible. However, the military registration and enlistment office refused the woman. She was 35 years old, and before that she suffered from tuberculosis. It seemed that to be on the front of October was no longer fated. However, Maria decided on the most amazing measures, just to get into the army.

"Fighting girlfriend"

October together with her sister sold all her possessions. In addition, she worked as a seamstress for several months. All this was necessary in order to gain an amount sufficient to collect a new tank. With the outbreak of the war, a defense fund was opened in the Soviet Union, where people's donations were made. The funds collected in this way went to the new army equipment.

So in the fund were 50 thousand rubles, which alone was contributed by Maria Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya. The biography of this woman is an example of many selfless actions for the sake of saving the motherland.

However, it was not enough to make money into the defense fund to be in combat. Maria wrote a telegram to the Kremlin addressed to Stalin. In her message, the woman told about the death of her husband and the desire to take revenge on the Nazis. She asked the commander-in-chief to name the tank "Battle girlfriend" collected for her money. Also, Oktyabrskaya asked to provide her with a driver's seat in this combat vehicle. Stalin responded to the astonishing telegram of a woman rushing from the rear to the front, and gave his consent.

At the front

In May 1943, new cadets entered the Omsk Tank School, which was destined to become part of the tank crews. Maria Oktyabrskaya was among them. The awards and fame of the first female tanker (the case was indeed unique) was not of interest to her. All that the woman wanted was to help her native country in its struggle against the German aggressors.

The training lasted several months. In October 1943, Maria finally got on the Western Front, where the most fierce battles were fought. She participated in several offensive operations of the Red Army. At that time, the Soviet Union had already seized the Wehrmacht's strategic initiative. One by one, the cities occupied in the course of the German blitzkrieg were liberated.

On November 18, the Red Army men watched the truly heroic feat of MV Oktyabrskaya. She on her tank broke into the defensive ranks of the German units. Shooting destroyed an enemy cannon and about 50 soldiers of the Third Reich. "The fighting girlfriend" was padded. Oktyabrskaya was injured, but remained in her car and two more days repelled enemy attacks until her tank was evacuated.

Thanks to the feat of October and her crew, a whole German platoon was destroyed. It happened in the battle in the Vitebsk region of Belarus. The heroine went to the medsanvzvod for treatment, and her act was set as an example to all fellow soldiers.

The last feat

A few weeks later, Oktyabrskaya returned to service. On January 18, 1944, she entered her last fight. The "war girlfriend" crushed three German machine-gun points. About 20 soldiers of the Wehrmacht perished under the wheels of the tank. Intensive fire was opened by the car. The enemy shell hit the tank and damaged it considerably.

October began to eliminate the breakdown. At that time a mine exploded nearby, a splinter of which hit Mary in the eye. She was seriously wounded and evacuated from the battlefield. In the field hospital, the tank crew was given a complicated operation. However, her condition remained heavy. Then Oktyabrskaya was sent to Smolensk, where the doctors planned to continue treatment. Meanwhile, on January 28, 1944, a woman received the Order of the Patriotic War of the second degree, and later the same award of the first degree.

Death and Memory

The splinter hit the brain. Because of this severe injury, Oktyabrskaya could not recover even in the hospital. Doctors were powerless. March 15, 1944 the famous tanker died in Smolensk. The woman was buried in the local Square of memory of heroes.

Even after the death, the authorities did their best to ensure that compatriots did not forget about such an outstanding soldier as Oktyabrskaya Maria Vasilievna. Hero of the Soviet Union - this is the title she received posthumously on August 2, 1944. Today the name of the tanker is named streets in many Russian cities.