Hero of the Soviet Union Oktyabrskaya Maria Vasilievna: biography, awards, feat and interesting facts. "Fighting girlfriend"
TOMSK, April 14 - RIA Novosti. The story of the Hero of the Soviet Union Maria Oktyabrskaya, who during the war managed to buy a tank and went to the front from Tomsk to avenge her husband's death, is known to every student and graduate of Tomsk gymnasium No. 24, named after the legendary woman.
The school was awarded this name twice: in Soviet times, but then, after being awarded the status of a gymnasium, it was lost and only in March of this year it was re-assigned. Nevertheless, a museum has been operating here since 1970, and a few years earlier a monument was erected at the school's porch, the money for which the children earned. Details of the life of a woman tanker can also be found in the local history museum. But the school museum of the 24th Tomsk gymnasium is considered one of the best in the region.
In the opinion of the schoolchildren themselves, who are engaged in the museum circle today, the act of Maria Oktyabrskaya is shocking. The wife of a soldier, who did not want to sit out in the evacuation in Tomsk, and after she received a funeral for her husband, went to the front herself. Her tank "Fighting Friend" was shot down in the Vitebsk region, Maria herself died from her wounds in the hospital before the end of the war.
"We make our own, albeit small, contribution to history ... We study materials, tell other students who Maria Oktyabrskaya was. Last year we went to the Smolensk region, to the places of military glory of a woman tanker. We learned a lot of new things," - says one of the students of the school.
Commander's wife
Maria Oktyabrskaya (nee Garagulya) was born in the Crimea, in a large peasant family. After completing six classes, Maria worked first at a cannery, then at a telephone exchange. In 1925, in Simferopol, she met a cadet of the cavalry school, Ilya Ryadnenko. A few months later they got married, when they registered the marriage, they took the name Oktyabrskiy.
"She loved her husband very much and was a person who really met her soul mate. As a military wife, she traveled to all military towns, both in the Crimea and in Moldova. Arriving at military units, she organized amateur art activities, embroidery courses - she was amazing The Tomsk Regional Museum of Local Lore has a carpet embroidered by Maria Vasilievna, "says Svetlana Zorkoltseva, Deputy Director of the Tomsk Regional Museum of Local Lore.
Maria wanted to fully correspond to her husband: she learned to drive a car, shot well from a rifle, machine gun, and threw grenades. Received the badge "Voroshilov shooter".
At the same time, she remained a charming woman. From pre-war photographs, a beautiful woman is looking at us, dressed in the latest fashion of those years.
Maria Vasilievna's husband served in Chisinau before the war. It was there that the war found the Oktyabrsky family.
Embroidered napkins to ... buy a tank
From the first days Ilya Oktyabrsky was sent to Moscow for courses and from there immediately went to the front. Maria Vasilievna and her sister were evacuated to Siberia. They did not see each other again.
At the end of the summer of 1941, a funeral came: "The regimental commissar of the 206th rifle division Ilya Fedotovich Oktyabrsky died a heroic death near Kiev on August 9, 1941".
The death of her husband knocked down, but did not break the strong-willed woman. At the women's congress in Novosibirsk, where Oktyabrskaya went as a delegate from Tomsk, she met the mothers and wives of those who died at the front. They told how they master difficult male professions, how they cope with their grief. It was there, at the congress, that Maria Vasilievna made a decision - her place in the ranks of the defenders of the Motherland.
First, Maria turned to the military registration and enlistment office with a request to send her to the front. She was denied several times: because of a past illness (she had tuberculosis in her youth) and age (at that time she was almost 40 years old).
Then Oktyabrskaya chose a different path, she decided to buy a tank.
“For several days, her sister traded in the markets of Tomsk, selling all the Oktyabrskys' property, which they managed to evacuate. Dresses, stockings, dishes. But there was not enough money. Maria Vasilyevna began to earn money with embroidery,” says Svetlana Zorkoltseva.
For many months she sat over napkins, tablecloths and handkerchiefs. Finally, the required amount - and this is 50 thousand rubles - was collected. The money at that time was really huge. Provided that the salary of a worker at the plant is about 200 rubles a month, and a bucket of potatoes cost 400 rubles.
Having collected the required amount, she deposited it with the State Bank, and sent a telegram to Stalin: “My husband, the regimental commissar Oktyabrsky Ilya Fedotovich, died in the battles for the Motherland. I contributed to the State Bank for building the tank all my savings - 50 thousand rubles. I ask you to name the tank "Fighting Girlfriend" and send me to the front as the driver of this tank.
Soon a short answer was received: "Thank you, Maria Vasilievna, for your concern for the armored forces of the Red Army. Your wish will be fulfilled. Please accept my greetings, Joseph Stalin."
Mortal wound
Maria Oktyabrskaya goes to the Omsk Tank School. She passed all exams with excellent marks and received a certificate of a driver-mechanic. In the Urals, right from the factory conveyor, workers handed her a tank, on the armor of which the "Fighting Girlfriend" was displayed.
The tank's crew consisting of the commander - junior lieutenant Pyotr Chebotko, tower gunner - sergeant Gennady Yasko, gunner-radio operator - Mikhail Galkin and driver-mechanic - sergeant Maria Oktyabrskaya, were enlisted in the 26th Elninskaya Guards Tank Brigade of the Western Front.
Maria Vasilievna received her baptism of fire not far from her husband's grave. In the very first battle, she was convinced of the excellent qualities of her car. The battalion commander thanked the crew of the Battle Girlfriend over the radio and congratulated them on the successful completion of the combat mission.
In mid-January 1944, a battle took place in the area of the Krynka state farm, Vitebsk region. Maria Vasilievna broke through the enemy's defenses on her tank, but the tank was knocked out. Under heavy enemy fire, being wounded, she was able to repair the tank and return to the unit.
Maria Vasilievna was taken by plane to Smolensk, where the surgeon examined the wound. It was difficult to do anything: the splinter pierced the eye and touched the cerebral hemisphere.
“There is a lot of blood loss. The general condition is weak,” the nurse noted on the card. After the operation, Maria Vasilievna was transferred to the ward.
On February 16, 1944, all the members of the crew of her tank came to visit Oktyabrskaya, and with them the head of the political department of the brigade of the guard, Colonel Nikolai Getman, who presented Maria Vasilyevna with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.
Oktyabrskaya's health condition deteriorated sharply, memory lapses, severe headache, fever, delirium occurred more and more often. At dawn, on March 15, 1944, Maria Vasilievna Oktyabrskaya died. They buried her in the Smolensk Kremlin, at the Kutuzov cemetery, next to the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812.
Fighting girlfriend "lived" to Victory
The name of the burnt-out "thirty-four" - "Fighting girlfriend" - later inherited another car, then the third, the fourth. Thus, this name, reminiscent of the Guard Sergeant Maria Oktyabrskaya, survived until the Victory.
By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 2, 1944, the Guard sergeant Oktyabrskaya was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Listed part.
The school museum carefully preserves relics associated with this legendary woman.
"Two dates - the 65th anniversary of the Victory of our people in the Great Patriotic War and the 40th anniversary of our museum - are intertwined very closely," says the head teacher of the Tomsk gymnasium Natalia Prokhorova.
According to her, the students have been participating in the city program "Memory" for ten years, last year they went to Smolensk (to the place of Oktyabrskaya's burial).
"There, people, in fact, did not know much about Oktyabrskaya. And everything that our children told them caused them sincere surprise and admiration. In our school, at their first class hour, first-graders come to the museum, where they are told why the gymnasium, in which they study, bears the name of this great woman, "the teacher notes.
During the Great Patriotic War, in the ranks of the Red Army, along with men, they fought alongside women! Over 90 were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, more were awarded orders and medals. Not all women, of course, took a direct part in the hostilities. Many served in various logistic services: economic, medical, staff, and so on.
In Simferopol, Maria Vasilievna met Ilya Fedorovich Oktyabrsky. Tall, stately, she immediately liked him. Maria Vasilievna did not want to lag behind her husband in anything. She read a lot, studied, perfectly fired a machine gun, a revolver, knew how to drive a car. Ilya Fedotovich October 1935
The war ... The husband went to the front, Maria Vasilievna was evacuated from Chisinau to Tomsk. Ilya Fedorovich wrote about himself in his letters, about how the border regiment fought the enemy. - Believe me, Native, believe, victory will definitely be ours, - wrote Ilya Fedorovich Oktyabrsky, - we will destroy the fascists. But he did not have to see the victory. Near the city of Kiev, leading the fighters into the attack, he was struck by a machine-gun burst. But the great grief did not break the strong-willed woman, she decided to go to the front
MOSCOW, KREMLIN, TO COMRADE STALIN Dear Joseph Vissarionovich! In the battles for the Motherland, my husband was killed, the regimental commissar Oktyabrsky Ilya Fedotovich. For his death, for the death of all Soviet people tortured by the fascist barbarians, I want to take revenge on the fascist dogs, for which I contributed all my personal savings of rubles to the State Bank to build the tank! I ask you to name the tank "Fighting Girlfriend" and send me to the front as the driver of this tank. Maria Vasilievna, Tomsk, Belinsky St., 31. Comrade Maria Vasilievna OCTOBER Thank you, Maria Vasilievna, for your concern for the armored forces of the Red Army. Your wish will be fulfilled. Please accept my greetings. I. STALIN.
The tankers got out of the warm dugouts and looked with interest at the brand new tanks passing by. A white inscription flashed on the tower of one of them.
“Fighting Girlfriend,” someone read aloud.
The tank immediately attracted general attention. The "fighting friend" was surrounded by tankmen.
Comrade, please tell me what this tank is so special? - called the young sergeant of the tanker, bent over the transmission hatch.
The tankman raised his head - dark, serious eyes looked at the audience.
Why special? Ordinary "T-34", - the tanker answered in a soft chest voice. - Don't you have such cars?
But no one answered him. The experienced guardsmen seemed to have lost their language. Without taking their eyes off, they looked at the soft wavy hair that stood out from under the cap. "Female?!"
Oktyabrskaya (nee Garagulya) Maria Vasilievna - mechanic-driver of the "Fighting Girlfriend" tank of the 2nd tank battalion of the 26th Guards Tank Brigade of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps of the Western Front, guard sergeant.
She was born on August 16, 1905 in the village of Kiyat, now the village of Blizhneye, Krasnogvardeisky District of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea of Ukraine, in a peasant family. Ukrainian. She lived in the city of Dzhankoy, graduated from 6 classes.
Childhood and adolescence Mary spent in Sevastopol. In 1921, she left first for Dzhankoy, and then for Simferopol. There Maria met a cadet of the cavalry school, Ilya Oktyabrsky. Tall, stately, he immediately liked her. Ilya also liked Maria. In 1925 they got married.
At first, the Oktyabrskys lived and served in Sevastopol. Maria and Ilya loved the sea, the play of moonlight on a steep wave, the sound of the surf, the fire of a lighthouse and the night twinkling of stars in the depths of the southern sky. One of the brightest belonged to them. The newlyweds agreed: with each separation, this distant light will become a guiding light for them. It will meet their views ...
Cozy and calm in the apartment where Maria is the hostess. Among the wives of command personnel, she was famous for her exquisite taste in clothing, home decoration, and was a skilled needlewoman. The Tekinsky carpet on the whole wall is a gift from Ilya. The "Voroshilovsky shooter" badge on Maria's sports blouse is her gift to her husband. Maria did not want to lag behind her husband in anything. She successfully completes nursing courses, perfectly shoots from a revolver, rifle, machine gun, dashingly drives a car.
Maria Vasilievna's husband serves in various positions in different garrisons. As commissar of the 134th howitzer artillery regiment, he takes part in the war with the Finns. In the summer of 1940, after the annexation of Bessarabia to the USSR, his regiment was deployed in Chisinau.
On June 22, 1941, residents of Chisinau woke up from a terrible hum. The Nazis bombed the capital of Moldova. The next morning, Maria Vasilievna, along with her sister and other members of the families of the red commanders, was evacuated to the east of the country, to Siberian Tomsk. There began hard everyday life in the rear, which lived millions of people who worked daily for our Victory.
At first, Maria Vasilievna worked in construction. But a long-standing illness - tuberculosis of the cervical vertebra - forced her to go to work as a telephone operator at a military school.
At the end of the summer of 1941, her husband's funeral came. It said that "the regimental commissar Ilya Fedotovich Oktyabrsky died a heroic death on August 9, 1941, in one of the battles in Ukraine." Maria Vasilievna turned to the military registration and enlistment office with a request to send her to the front. She was refused several times. Past illness, age ...
Then Oktyabrskaya chose a different path. At that time, fundraising for the defense fund was going on throughout the country. And Maria Vasilievna decided to buy ... a tank. But for what money? Together with his sister, they sold all the things at the market that they managed to acquire and were able to take out during the evacuation. But that was not enough.
And then Oktyabrskaya took up embroidery and earned the missing amount with her own labor. For many months, day after day, hard and painstaking work lasted. Even during the war, Tomsk residents willingly bought napkins, scarves, tablecloths, pillowcases embroidered by a skilled craftswoman. Finally, the money was collected and handed over to the state bank. Then Maria Vasilievna sent a telegram to Stalin.
Chairman of the State Defense Committee. To the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
Moscow Kremlin
March 3, 1943
“In the battles for the Motherland, my husband, the regimental commissar Oktyabrsky Ilya Fedotovich, died. For his death, for the death of all Soviet people tortured by the fascist barbarians, I want to take revenge on the fascist dogs, for which I contributed all my savings to the state bank to build the tank - 50,000 rubles. I ask you to name the tank "Fighting Girlfriend" and send me to the front as the driver of this tank. I have a specialty of a chauffeur, I have excellent command of a machine gun, I am a Voroshilov shooter ... "
Oktyabrskaya Maria Vasilievna, Tomsk, Belinsky, 31
In the same days the answer was received:
Tomsk. Maria Vasilievna Oktyabrskaya.
“Thank you, Maria Vasilievna, for your concern for the armored forces of the Red Army. Your wish will be granted. Please accept my greetings, Joseph Stalin. "
The crew of the "Fighting Girlfriend"
On May 3, 1943, Maria Vasilievna began to learn how to drive a tank in Omsk. She passed all exams with excellent marks and received a certificate of a driver-mechanic. She was promoted to sergeant. The tank's crew was formed: the commander was junior lieutenant Pyotr Chebotko, who had military experience, the tower gunner was sergeant Gennady Yasko, the gunner-radio operator was Mikhail Galkin. On the tower of a brand new "thirty-four" on both sides in white paint was drawn: "Fighting girlfriend." And then the front ...
The firing line of summer battles in 1943 went from Taganrog to the Oryol-Kursk Bulge. In an accelerated march, not knowing rest, the "Combat Girlfriend" tank covered a distance of thousands of kilometers to the steppe, where Commissar Oktyabrsky died in battle.
Maria Vasilievna received her baptism of fire not far from her husband's grave. With an astonishing calmness and self-control for a woman, Oktyabrskaya maneuvered in the first battle. At first, the shells of the tank exploded in the midst of the fascist units. Then the formidable machine crashed into the battle formations of the enemy's infantry. The tank was furiously ironing out the advanced positions of the Nazis. Its tracks wiped out hundreds of enemy soldiers from the face of their native land.
The tankers ended up in the 2nd Battalion of the 26th Guards "Yelninskaya" Tank Brigade of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps of the Western Front. October 21, 1943 M.V. Oktyabrskaya received the baptism of fire. The command assigned the tankers the task of breaking through the powerful defenses of the Nazis and capturing an important stronghold of the New village of the Senno district of the Vitebsk region. Here is how the outcome of this battle is described in the combat log: “Brigade units destroyed up to 100 enemy soldiers and officers, up to 2 batteries of 71-mm guns, 15 machine guns and one Ferdinand tank. The battalion lost 2 tanks, the Fighting Girlfriend was hit. "
The Nazis pre-zoned the area, and when our tanks went on the attack, they faced heavy fire from enemy batteries. On the account of the crew of the "Battle Girlfriend" was the destroyed enemy weapon and several dozen Nazi soldiers and officers. At that moment, a shell hit the track of the tank and three tracks were knocked out. By inertia, the tank rolled into a small ravine, becoming inaccessible to enemy guns. However, the Nazis continued to fire mortars at him, not allowing the damage to be repaired on the spot. The attempts to tow the tank to the rear were also unsuccessful. The Nazis watched him vigilantly and fiercely fired at all the approaches. In this difficult moment, the crew of the "Fighting Girlfriend" decided not to leave the tank. The Nazis tried several times to approach in order to destroy the tank with grenades and bottles with flammable liquid. But they did not succeed. The unequal battle lasted for two days. For two days the gun and machine gun of the "Fighting Girlfriends" thundered. And at night, under enemy fire, the crew was engaged in repairs. On October 23, 1943, the tank was put on alert and continued fighting for Novoye Selo.
In the very first battle, Maria Vasilievna was convinced of the excellent qualities of her car. The battalion commander thanked the crew of the "Combat Girlfriend" over the radio and congratulated them on the successful completion of the combat mission. On November 14, 1943, the unit was transferred to a new direction, where enemy resistance was especially fierce. "Fighting Girlfriend" was in the first echelon of the attackers. The combat path of a male tanker is harsh, dangerous and difficult; it is many times more difficult for a woman. But the guard sergeant Oktyabrskaya was impeccably fulfilling her military duty.
The last fight
It happened on January 17, 1944 near Vitebsk, in the area of the railway station and the state farm "Krynki". The head tanks, including the "Fighting Girlfriend", repulsed enemy attacks, waiting for their infantry, which was cut off by strong machine-gun and artillery fire. The situation remained dire. The dry ration was coming to an end, the ammunition was running out, the offensive began.
Together with everyone rushed to the village of Krynki and "Fighting girlfriend". But only to the first trench she was destined to reach. From an ambush, a German cannon struck at close range. The torn caterpillar of the tank sprawled lifelessly in the snow. The tankers jumped out of the car. Oktyabrskaya looked around. A couple of fascist "tigers" were burning down a few meters away. How to repair a tank under fire, and even a right track exposed to the enemy? You need to have a lot of self-control and courage in order to fix the machine in such conditions, to take it out of fire and complete a combat mission.
Maria Vasilievna took off the spare tracks from the wing and jumped to the ground. She did not hear the moaning howling of the mines, and, perhaps, did, but how could that stop her? There was an explosion. Maria Vasilievna felt a sharp pain in her left eye. Immediately the pain radiated to the left arm, to the thigh. She fell unconscious. She was taken from the battlefield in a self-propelled gun.
Maria Vasilievna was taken by plane to Smolensk. An elderly surgeon examined the wound. It's hard to do anything. The splinter pierced the eye and touched the cerebral hemisphere. “Great blood loss. The general condition is weak, ”the nurse noted in the card. After the operation, Maria Vasilievna was transferred to the ward.
On February 16, 1944, all the crew members of her tank came to visit Oktyabrskaya, and with them the head of the political department of the guard brigade, Colonel Nikolai Getman, who presented Maria Vasilyevna with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. A few days later, Oktyabrskaya was visited by a member of the military council of the front, Lev Mekhlis. He told Maria Vasilievna that the command had submitted her for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Leaving the hospital ward, Mekhlis ordered the doctors to urgently prepare Oktyabrskaya Street to be sent to Moscow. But her health deteriorated sharply, more and more often blackouts, severe headache, fever, delirium occurred. Evacuation to the capital's hospital was out of the question ...
At dawn, on March 15, 1944, Maria Vasilievna Oktyabrskaya died. They buried her in the Smolensk Kremlin, on the banks of the Dnieper, next to the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812.
... The name of the burnt-out "thirty-four" - "Fighting girlfriend" - was inherited by another car. Then the third, fourth. It, reminiscent of the Guard Sergeant Maria Oktyabrskaya, lived to see Victory.
In memory of the fearless Crimean woman, Tomsk school number 24 bears her name. In front of the entrance to the educational institution, a monument was erected to her, made by the sculptor Sergei Danilin, and the school's museum carefully stores a few relics and materials about a brave woman.
The text on the memorial plaque reads: “This place was the house where Maria Oktyabrskaya lived in 1941-43 - Hero of the Soviet Union, sergeant, driver of the Fighting Girlfriend tank, built on her personal savings. She died in the battles for the Motherland in 1944 ”.
To avenge her deceased husband, she bought a tank. And she went on it to take revenge on the fascists.
Before the war
Maria Vasilievna Oktyabrskaya was the officer's model wife. Having married a cadet of the cavalry school Ilya Ryadnenko in 1925, Masha, nee Garagulya, agreed with her husband's opinion that now, since a new Soviet family has arisen, everything should be new, including the surname. And the young couple took the name Oktyabrskiy for themselves. Born into a large peasant family, Maria was a good housewife and a skilled craftswoman in everything related to women's needlework. She led the house in an exemplary manner, cooked well and always looked great. Moving for her husband-officer from the garrison to the garrison, Maria invariably became a trendsetter among other officer's wives, they learned from her to dress with taste and behave with dignity. At the same time, Maria was by no means a "muslin girl" - she learned to shoot a machine gun, drive a car, and took medical courses. When the war began, Maria and her husband lived in Chisinau. Ilya Oktyabrsky then served in the 134th howitzer artillery regiment.
In evacuation
The day after the start of the war, Maria Oktyabrskaya, along with other members of the officers' families, was evacuated to Tomsk. Here she remembered her pre-war profession, starting to work as a telephone operator. In August 1941, Maria Vasilievna received a "funeral" for her husband. The regimental commissar Oktyabrsky himself led the fighters into the attack, and was struck by a machine-gun burst. Maria immediately rushed to the military registration and enlistment office with a request to send her to the front. She knows how to shoot, she took medical training courses, she can handle it! However, all requests were refused. Maria suffered a serious illness - tuberculosis of the cervical vertebra, and she is not very young for the front, she is already 36 years old. And then Maria Oktyabrskaya decides to buy a tank. There was nothing incredible in such a plan, then across the country there was a fundraiser for military equipment and weapons. However, the tank is very expensive! Even having sold everything she has, a woman would hardly have been able to gather up for a combat vehicle. This is where the skills of a skilled embroiderer came in handy. Arriving home from duty at the telephone station, Maria sits down at the embroidery frame and embroiders napkins, tablecloths, and towels. All this beauty goes into the air, and more and more orders come in. And so - month after month. The required amount - 50 thousand rubles - was collected and sent to the State Bank by the spring of 1943.
Telegram to the Kremlin
Having collected the money, Maria takes a desperate step, she sends a telegram to Stalin. Here is what it said: “Dear Joseph Vissarionovich! In the battles for the Motherland, my husband, the regimental commissar Oktyabrsky Ilya Fedotovich, died. For his death, for the death of all Soviet people tortured by the fascist barbarians, I want to take revenge on the fascist dogs, for which I contributed all my personal savings to the state bank to build the tank - 50,000 rubles. I ask you to name the tank "Fighting Girlfriend" and send me to the front as the driver of this tank. I have a specialty of a chauffeur, I have excellent command of a machine gun, and I am a Voroshilov shooter. I send you warm greetings and wish you good health for many, many years for fear of enemies and for the glory of our Motherland. Oktyabrskaya Maria Vasilievna ". And very soon the answer came: “Comrade. Oktyabrskaya Maria Vasilievna. Thank you, Maria Vasilievna, for your concern for the armored forces of the Red Army. Your wish will be granted. Please accept my greetings. I. Stalin ".
The crew of the "Fighting Girlfriend"
In the fall of 1943 in Belarus, as part of the 2nd battalion of the 26th Guards Tank Brigade of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps, a tank appeared with the inscription "Fighting Girlfriend" on its turret. The crew of the thirty-four consisted of the commander - Lieutenant Pyotr Chebotko, Sergeant Gennady Yasko, gunner-radio operator Mikhail Galkin and driver-mechanic Sergeant Maria Oktyabrskaya. The soldiers, of course, were simply stunned when they saw a woman in the crew of a combat vehicle. Soon her story spread throughout the Panzer Corps. And, I must say, none of the tankers would ever say that Maria is here simply because of the "woman's whim". After graduating with honors from the Omsk Tank School, she fought no worse than the most seasoned fighters, in a difficult combat situation she did not get lost and did not get scared, leading the tank with the same virtuoso skill with which she had previously operated with a needle. For example, in the battle for the village of Novoye Selo, the Fighting Girlfriend tank destroyed a cannon and 50 German soldiers and officers. The car was hit and could not leave the battlefield. The crew did not leave the tank and for two days fired at the Germans with airborne and personal weapons fire until they came to their aid. The tank had to be towed for repairs, and Maria was slightly wounded in that battle. But she did not leave the front and continued to fight.
The last fight
In January, near Vitebsk, where there were heavy battles, in one of the battles at the Krynki railway station, the driver of the Fighting Girlfriend tank crushed 2 machine-gun points and two dozen enemy soldiers and officers with his combat vehicle. The tank was hit by a shell with a caterpillar. The driver-mechanic Oktyabrskaya began repairs under enemy fire. And she was seriously wounded in the head. The doctors of the hospital in Smolensk, where the woman was taken, did everything they could to save her, but the wound was too severe: the splinter reached the cerebral hemisphere.
Letter from the "sons"
Maria Oktyabrskaya had no children, it just so happened. However, all the young tankers, her colleagues, called her mother. This is the letter Maria Oktyabrskaya received from her betrothed sons when she was in the hospital: “Hello, our mother Maria Vasilievna! We wish you the very soonest recovery. We deeply believe that our "Fighting Girlfriend" will reach Berlin. For your injury, we will mercilessly avenge the enemy. In an hour we leave for battle. We hug you all. Our "Fighting Girlfriend" sends you greetings. This letter was delivered to her by Major Topok. He became the last visitor whom the doctors allowed to see the wounded woman. After that, her condition began to deteriorate. Almost all the time she was unconscious, and on March 15, 1944, she was gone.
Memory
On August 2, 1944, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for courage and heroism shown in battles, the Guard Sergeant Oktyabrskaya Maria Vasilievna was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). The tank, acquired by Maria Vasilievna, was destroyed by the Germans in one of the battles. However, young tankers, in memory of their deceased mother, wrote the words "Fighting girlfriend" on the turret of one of the new tanks. This tank was decommissioned after the battles for Minsk. But a proud inscription appeared on the turret of the next tank, and after this tank was knocked out, on the turret of another one, and "Fighting Girlfriend" continued to fight the Germans until Konigsberg, where she ended the war.