Today, I know of several female captains, all of whom command very respectable ships, and one of them is the largest ship of its type in the world. Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina, whom I deeply respect, is considered to be the first female captain in the world, although in fact it is unlikely - just remember Grace ONeill (Barki), the most famous female filibuster from Ireland, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st. Probably, Anna Ivanovna can safely be called the first female captain of the 20th century. Anna Ivanovna once said that her personal opinion is that there is no place for a woman on ships, especially on the bridge. But let’s not forget that even with the relatively recent past, the middle of the last century, much in the sea and the world has changed dramatically, so modern women with considerable success they prove to us that there is a place for women on ships, in any position.
The world's largest livestock ship is headed by a woman
April 16, 2008 - Siba Ships appointed the captain of her largest livestock transport vessel, also the largest vessel of this type in the world, Stella Deneb, woman - Laura Pinasco.
Laura brought Stella Deneb to Fremantle, Australia, her first voyage and first ship as captain. She is only 30 years old; she got a job at Siba Ships in 2006 as a first mate.
Laura from Genoa, at sea since 1997. She received her captain's diploma in 2003.
Laura has worked on gas carriers and livestock carriers, serving as first mate on Stella Deneb prior to captaincy, and in particular during a record-breaking voyage last year when Stella Deneb loaded a shipment worth A$11.5 million in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. , assigned to Indonesia and Malaysia.
20,060 heads of cattle and 2,564 sheep and goats were taken on board. It took 28 trains to deliver them to the port. Loading and transportation were carried out under careful supervision veterinary services and met the highest standards.
Men and unauthorized entry banned - the only ship in the world entirely managed by women
December 23-29, 2007 - container ship Horizon Navigator(gross 28212, built 1972, US flag, owner HORIZON LINES LLC) 2360 TEU Horizon Lines was hijacked by women.
All navigators and the captain are women. Captain Robin Espinosa, first mate Sam Pirtle, 2nd mate Julie Duchi. All the rest of the total crew of 25 are men. The women fell onto the bridge of the container ship, according to the company, completely by accident, during a trade union competition. Espinosa is extremely surprised - for the first time in 10 years she is working in a crew with other women, not to mention navigators. International organization Captains, Navigators and Pilots in Honolulu says its ranks are 10% women, down from 1% 30 years ago.
The women, needless to say, are wonderful. Robin Espinoza and Sam Pirtle are classmates. We studied together at the Merchant Marine Academy. Sam also holds a captain's certificate long voyage. Julie Duchi became a sailor later than her captain and first mate, but sailor navigators will understand and appreciate this hobby of hers (in our times, alas and alas, this is a hobby, although without knowing the sextant, you will never become a real navigator) - “I’m probably one of the few navigators who uses a sextant to determine the location, just for my own pleasure!”
Robin Espinoza has been in the Navy for a quarter of a century. When she first began her naval career, a woman was a rarity in the US Navy. For her first ten years on ships, Robin worked on all-male crews. Robin, Sam and Julie love their profession very much, but when you are separated from your native shore for many weeks, it can be sad. Robin Espinoza, 49, says: “I really miss my husband and 18-year-old daughter.” Her peer Sam Pearl never met someone with whom she could start a family. “I meet men,” she says, who want a woman to constantly look after them. And for me, my career is a part of myself, I cannot allow for a moment that anything could prevent me from going to sea.”
Julie Duchi, who is 46 years old, simply loves the sea, and simply cannot imagine that there are other, more worthy or interesting professions in the world.
Details about the glorious command staff of Horizon Navigator, and photographs, were sent to me by the children's writer, former sailor, Vladimir Novikov, for which many thanks to him!
The world's first female captain of a mega liner
May 13-19, 2007 - Royal Caribbean International appointed captain of a cruise ship Monarch of the Seas Swedish woman Karin Star-Janson.
Monarch of the Seas is a liner of the first, so to speak, rank, gross 73937, 14 decks, 2400 passengers, 850 crew, built in 1991. That is, it belongs to the category of the largest airliners in the world.
The Swede became the first woman in the world to receive the position of captain on ships of this type and size.
She has been with the company since 1997, first as a navigator on Viking Serenade and Nordic Empress, then as first mate on Vision of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas, then as backup captain on Brilliance of the Seas, Serenade of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas. Her whole life is connected with the sea, she has a higher education, University of Technology Chalmers, Sweden, bachelor's degree in navigation. She currently has a diploma allowing her to command ships of any type and size.
Belgium's first female captain
And the first female captain of an LPG tanker...
LPG tanker Libramont (deadweight 29328, length 180 m, beam 29 m, draft 10.4 m, built 2006 Korea OKRO, flag Belgium, owner EXMAR SHIPPING) was accepted by the customer in May 2006 at the OKRO shipyards, a woman took command of the vessel, the first female captain in Belgium and, apparently, the first female captain of a gas carrier tanker.
In 2006, Rogge was 32 years old, two years after she received her captain's diploma. That's all that is known about her.
Site reader Sergei Zhurkin told me about it, for which I thank him very much.
Norwegian pilot
Pictured is Marianne Ingebrigsten, April 9, 2008, after receiving her pilot's diploma, Norway. At 34, she became the second female pilot in Norway, and that, unfortunately, is all that is known about her.
Russian women captains
Information about Lyudmila Tebryaeva was sent to me by site reader Sergei Gorchakov, for which I thank him very much. I did some digging as best I could and found information about two more women in Russia who are captains.
Lyudmila Tibryaeva - ice captain
Our Russian female captain Lyudmila Tibryaeva is, and apparently we can confidently say, the only female captain in the world with experience in Arctic navigation.
In 2007, Lyudmila Tebryaeva celebrated three dates at once - 40 years of work in the shipping company, 20 years as a captain, 60 years since her birth. In 1987, Lyudmila Tibryaeva became a sea captain. She is a member of the International Sea Captains Association. For outstanding achievements, she was awarded in 1998 the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, second degree. Today, her portrait in a uniform jacket against the backdrop of a ship adorns the Arctic Museum. Lyudmila Tibryaeva received the "Sea Captain" badge number 1851. In the 60s, Lyudmila came to Murmansk from Kazakhstan. And on January 24, 1967, 19-year-old Lyuda set off on her first voyage on the icebreaker Captain Belousov. In the summer, the correspondence student went to Leningrad to take the exam, and the icebreaker went to the Arctic. She made her way to the minister to get permission to enter the naval school. Lyudmila had a successful family life, which is rare for sailors in general, and even more so for women who continue to sail.
Alevtina Alexandrova - captain at the Sakhalin Shipping Company In 2001, she turned 60 years old. Alevtina Alexandrova came to Sakhalin in 1946 with her parents and school years began writing letters to naval schools, and then to ministries and personally to N.S. Khrushchev, with a request for permission to study at the nautical school. At less than 16 years old, A. Alexandrova became a cadet at the Nevelsk Naval School. The decisive role in her fate was played by the captain of the ship “Alexander Baranov” Viktor Dmitrenko, with whom the girl-navigator did an internship. Then Alevtina got a job at the Sakhalin Shipping Company and worked there all her life.
Valentina Reutova - captain of a fishing vessel. She is 45 years old, so she seems to have become the captain of a fishing vessel in Kamchatka, that's all I know.
Girls rule
Young people also join the fleet, and letters to the president or minister are no longer required. Last year, for example, I gave a note about a graduate of Moscow State University. adm. G.I.Nevelsky. On February 9, 2007, the Maritime University gave a start in life to the future captain Natalya Belokonskaya. She is the first girl in the new century to graduate from the navigating department. Moreover, Natalya is an excellent student! Future captain? Natalya Belokonskaya, a graduate of FEVIMU (MSU), receives a diploma, and Olya Smirnova works as a sailor-helmsman on the river m/v "Vasily Chapaev".
North America's first female captain dies
On March 9, 2009, the first person in Canada died at the age of 93. North America Chartered Merchant Marine Captain Molly Carney, known as Molly Cool. She qualified as a captain in 1939 at the age of 23, and spent 5 years sailing between Alma, New Brunswick and Boston. It was then that the Canadian Shipping Act changed the word “captain” from “he” to “he/she”. Pictured is Molly Carney in 1939 after receiving her captain's diploma.
After the war Evdokia Zavaliy She worked as a store director, raised children and grandchildren, led an ordinary life, but she could not forget the horrors that she had to go through. At night she screamed so loudly that her family and friends were even afraid to approach her. The nightmares did not go away for a long time, because Dusya went to war as a 15-year-old teenager and went a long way from a nurse to a guard colonel. She fearlessly rushed into attacks, fought, posing as a man, was wounded four times, was listed as dead twice, but survived and met the long-awaited Victory.
Evdokia decided to go defend her homeland as soon as she learned that the war had started. On the day of the first bombing, she was in the field and saw shells exploding and the wounded falling. She was ready to work as a nurse just to help the front; she credited herself with three years, as many young people did at that time. Running away from home, she wanted to hide her decision from her loved ones, but her grandmother looked at her sternly and understood everything. Later, Evdokia recalled that her grandmother was a healer and had the gift of foreseeing the future. Saying goodbye, she told her granddaughter that she would return alive, but she would bleed four times, and the white geese would bring her back. Then Evdokia ignored her grandmother’s words about geese, but a few years later the prophecy came true.
The military career began with the post of a nurse, however, the unit with which Evdokia left came under fire during a crossing a month later, and the girl was severely wounded in the stomach. After treatment in the hospital, she still wanted to go to the front line, and achieved her goal, but ended up in a reserve regiment. She received her first Order of the Red Star for pulling a wounded officer out from under fire. During the service, Evdokia looked like a man: she wore the same soldier’s uniform as they did, and her long braids were cut off in the hospital, so that only a short forelock remained. The external resemblance to a man helped her at a moment when she did not expect it at all: during the selection of fighters for the front line, she took a liking, the documents were checked, and it said: “Zavaliy Evdok.” So Evdokia became Evdokim and ended up in the Marine Corps.
Evdokia decided to hide the fact that she was a woman because she was afraid of being demoted. She coped well with tasks and was never a coward. History has preserved one of her heroic deeds. Being surrounded, the Marines were left without food and ammunition, Evdokia managed to wade to the shore occupied by the enemy, and from there transport everything they needed on a makeshift raft. And even to get out unharmed from the shelling that began after her position was declassified.
In male guise, Evdokia fought for about eight months. The deception was exposed when she was again wounded in one of the heavy battles in Kuban. Considering her military merits and the fearlessness with which she always called fighters to attack, Evdokia Zavaliy was sent to lieutenant courses immediately after being discharged from the hospital. After successfully completing training, Evdokia became a platoon commander.
Of course, many soldiers did not want to obey a woman. Her platoon was contemptuously called “Duska’s platoon,” but all the jokes and ridicule stopped after Evdokia began making bold forays against the Germans. The enemy dubbed Evdokia "Frau Black Death", and her personal record included many successful operations. In particular, during the offensive in the Budapest direction, Evdokia, together with her platoon, received the task of taking the headquarters of the German command. We made our way to the desired location through sewer pipes filled with sewage. The operation was carried out brilliantly and the German general was captured. When they announced to him who commanded the platoon, he did not believe it, and when he saw Evdokia Zavaliy, who came to him without having time to change clothes and wash, he silently handed her his weapon as a sign of respect and recognition of her strength.
It is interesting that the grandmother’s omens came true: Evdokia was seriously wounded four times and was shell-shocked twice, and survived due to the fact that she received a blood transfusion on time. For this, a soldier with the telling surname Guseinov sacrificed his life. Remembering the war, Evdokia often talked about how soldiers from her platoon saved her. She was twice included in the lists of the dead, her name is carved on two mass graves where she was not buried.
After the war, Evdokia Zavaliy led an active life; she traveled a lot to the former Soviet republics and met with young military personnel. She passed away in 2010.
There were many such brave female fighters as Evdokia Zavaliy during the war years. So, they were considered the best shooters.
09/01/1943 - author Shevich
The long-standing belief that a woman in the navy is an anomalous phenomenon is now perceived as something of a relic.
And although some men are still skeptical about ladies in peacoats, the fair sex has long won its place in the sun in the naval crews of many countries. In Norway, even the Navy’s holy of holies—submarines—could not withstand the onslaught of the sea Amazons.
In Russia, the commandment of Peter I that “there should be no women in the navy” was first violated by the Greek Laskarina Boubulina, the only woman admiral of the Russian fleet in history. In the United States, the first sailor was Grace Hopper, a rear admiral of the American Navy.
Ukraine also has its own woman legend. A man of amazing destiny and with a biography unique in the history of the navy. Guard Colonel Marine Corps Evdokia Zavaliy is the only representative of the fairer sex who led a platoon of marines operating on the front line during the Second World War.
I am trying in vain to find in the appearance of a short, thin woman the features of selectivity that allowed her, at seventeen years old, to command fifty strong men, terrifying the Nazis with daring attacks, for which she received from them the nickname “Frau Black Commissioner” or “Frau Black Death.” Literally from the threshold, Evdokia Nikolaevna commands me: “Let's go to the table! The naval soup is getting cold!” It sounds like an order, and I understand that objections are pointless - the platoon commander is in his element.
Fatal memory
- Evdokia Nikolaevna, tell me a secret: how did you manage to lead a platoon of paratroopers, maybe they knew a charm word?
— The words are the most common: “Platoon! Listen to my command! I’ve always had a loud voice; since childhood I’ve sung songs to my accordion. At first, of course, the boys would grunt in my direction, but I didn’t pay attention. Never mind, I think I’ll show you Kuzka’s mother! Will to fist, wild eyes and - forward! I wanted to wipe the men’s noses, to show that I could fight no worse, if not better, than them. And they got used to me and respected me. If she had not been accepted as a commander, she would have been killed a hundred times. After all, the Germans were hunting for me after they found out that the “black commissars” were commanded by a woman, but my guys came to the rescue every time.
I raise them to attack: “Follow me!” They catch up and go around me, covering me, fearless, desperate - Zhora Dorofeev, Petro Moroz, Sasha Kozhevnikov, three Dimas - Vaklersky, Sobinov and Sedykh... Each of the fifty-five of my machine gunners is still standing before my eyes, although none of them are anymore alive. Dimka Sedykh threw himself under the tank with the last grenade, Misha Panikakho burned alive, doused with a flammable mixture, but managed to jump on the enemy tank and set it on fire, Vanya Posevnykh... When he appeared in the platoon, he looked at him with a contemptuous look: “I don’t want to obey a woman!” And in the battles for Budapest, he protected me from a sniper shot, exposing his chest... Only sixteen of my guys reached Victory, today I am the only one left from our special platoon of the 83rd Marine Brigade.
Evdokia Nikolaevna falls silent, trying to calm down the tears flowing in streams down her cheeks, and I, not knowing how to console, turn the conversation in a different direction - to where it shouldn’t hurt.
— You probably grew up as a kid - you were the boss in the yard, you were the ringleader?
She doesn’t seem to hear the question - the heart-tearing fatal memory of 65 years of endurance does not let her go.
“I’m not used to losing.” At the front, I hid my tears under my raincoat so that, God forbid, someone would see and suspect me of weakness. You see, I simply had no right to be weak, to be afraid. But I was still afraid... of rats. I couldn’t help myself, rats were worse than the Germans for me - they were hungry, they would rush at my face at night, and gnaw at my heels. Brr! It's better not to remember...
I went to war when I was just a girl, I wasn’t even sixteen yet. I ran to the military commissar three times, and he kept telling me: “First wipe off the milk!” - “What kind of milk?” “Mother, it hasn’t dried out yet!” But the front was approaching, and soon the war itself came for me. I still remember this day, July 25th. The sun-scorched steppe in my native Nikolaev region, the collective farm field where my friends and I were in a hurry to harvest the harvest, earning workdays. Suddenly we see that black spots appeared in the white sky above our village.
The brigadier whistled: “Parachute landing!” An increasing rumble was heard, and enemy planes began bombing. We rushed home. Running into the yard, I heard someone groan and, looking under the old Antonovka, I was stunned: a young border guard (there was a border post headquarters in our village) lying in a pool of blood. I don’t remember how I ran into the hut, tore the sheet into bandages, bandaged him as best I could, I looked - another one was wounded, then another...
When the last military unit left New Bug, fighting bloody battles, I persuaded the commander to take me with him. I wanted to run home for a blouse, but near the house I ran into my grandmother. Seeing me, the woman began to cry: “Oh, why are you so robish? Come back, my gold!”
And then she suddenly hugged her tightly, whispered something and looked into her eyes:
- Onuchechka! You will bleed four times! But the white geese will bring you... And she crossed herself. My grandmother treated people with herbs and predicted fate. She lived in the world for 114 years.
Duskin's platoon
— Did your grandmother’s prediction come true?
“As I said, that’s what happened.” Four wounds and two shell shocks—I returned from the war with such trophies. The first time I was wounded was on Khortitsa, when, during the retreat, our 96th cavalry regiment, where I served as a nurse, took on a difficult battle. We had to cross the Dnieper by swimming, on flimsy rafts made from scrap material. There the enemy shell overtook him. After a penetrating wound to the stomach, she was taken to a hospital near Krasnodar. The head doctor examined me: “Well, that’s it, girl, she fought back. Get your letter and go home.” She answered as bluntly as “I have nowhere to go!” Send to the front!
After being wounded, they sent me to a reserve regiment. And it was there that the “buyers” from the command came to recruit guys for the front line. One of them, a sailor, calls me: “Guard senior sergeant, show your documents!” He opens my letter and reads: “Senior Sergeant Zavaliy Evdok.” It was at the hospital that my name was shortened that way. “Zavaliy Evdokim?” And I told him, without blinking an eye: “That’s right, comrade commander! Zavaliy Evdokim Nikolaevich! - “I give you fifteen minutes to get ready!” - "Eat!"
He had no idea that there was a girl in front of him. And I didn’t stand out among the guys in any way: the same tunic and riding breeches, on my head after the hospital there was a “hedgehog” with a forelock - the braid had to be shaved off so that the lice wouldn’t bother me. They gave me ammunition, uniforms, and then sent me... to the bathhouse.
“Is this where the deception was revealed?” "Evdokim" was exposed...
- What are you talking about! If they had found out then, they wouldn’t have blown my head off. Execution article, the command is not to be trifled with! I’m standing there, neither alive nor dead, with my basin, and the guys running by in the clothes their mother gave birth to wash themselves. I looked at the medical battalion tent and decided to pick at the blood on my face so that there would be no time for a bath. At the medical battalion, my wounds were treated, and two and a half hours later, near the village of Goryachiy Klyuch, senior sergeant Evdokim Zavaliy took part in the battle as part of the sixth airborne brigade.
- Do you want to say that you managed to quietly join male society and remain unclassified there for some time? Sorry, but this seems incredible...
“Nevertheless, I managed to hold out for about a year.” Nobody guessed anything. I was immediately recognized as “their guy,” and after I captured a German officer near Mazdok, I was sent to the intelligence department, and soon I became his commander. Very heavy fighting took place in Kuban, near the village of Krymskaya. There our company was surrounded. In the midst of the battle, the commander died, and, noticing the confusion of the soldiers, I, the company sergeant major, stood up to my full “giant” height and shouted: “Company! Listen to me! Forward, follow me! The soldiers went on the attack, and we managed to break the enemy’s resistance and get out of the encirclement. In this battle I received my second serious wound. That’s when “Evdokim” was exposed.
- And what were the consequences? Did the command give you nuts?
- Nobody even made a peep. They probably took into account his military merits and gave him a referral for a six-month course. junior lieutenants. After them, in October 443, they were sent to the 83rd Marine Brigade of the Red Banner Danube Flotilla and entrusted with a platoon. So I turned from “Comrade Evdokim” into “Lieutenant Dusya”. I found the sailors hand-picked - tall, strong, desperate lads. The guys from neighboring platoons initially laughed at us: “Duskin’s platoon!” But time passed, and they began to call them respectfully: “Dusin’s guards.” And my machine gunners called me like a man - commander, and sometimes affectionately Evdokimushka...
There won't be three deaths
— That is, the soldiers began to perceive you not only as a commander, but also as a woman. Tell me honestly, your heart never skipped a beat? Have you caught loving glances on yourself?
- What are you talking about! If at least some thoughts arose on this matter, that’s it - no platoon and no commander. I was a man for them, and we, the Marines, had no time for love. Ask other branches of the military about this, maybe they’ll tell you something. But I have nothing to tell, except that I returned home after the war, clear as the sky and stars...
My tactless question excited Evdokia Nikolaevna, and command notes appeared in her voice again: “Take that newspaper over there!” I hand her a tattered piece of newspaper from a solid home archive laid out on the table. She returns it to me: “Read!”
— “The fighters, led by a female officer, were landed behind enemy lines by landing boats. The task was set to block the road along which the fascist units defeated near Budapest were retreating to Vienna. For 6 days the guys fought off the enemy’s furious attacks. And then bombs rained down on them from the air. “Tigers” moved towards the sailors from the direction of Budapest. It seemed that everything was over. A handful of Marines will not stand it, they will not stand. But while help arrived, seven fascist tanks were burning in front of the brave trenches. "Tigers" were set on fire by sailors from Lieutenant Zavaliy's platoon..."
Evdokia Nikolaevna interrupts me:
- That’s the kind of “love” we had, baby. And you say, looks...
Sevastopol, Sapun Mountain, Balaklava, Novorossiysk, Kerch catacombs. 8-9 attacks in one day. After the war, I “went on the attack” for a long time at night. She screamed so loudly that the neighbors were scared. And my grandmother prayed and told my mother: “It’s an unclean spirit coming out of her, Donya!” Probably, thanks to these prayers and conspiracies of hers, I still live, although I was buried three times...
I listen to her story and think: probably, when a person becomes a legend during his lifetime, he perceives mysticism and mythology as objective reality. Forgetting what is truth and what is fiction. But just in case, let me clarify:
- How many times?
She does not react to the stupid question and continues, looking through me into her past:
“At the very beginning of the war, one of my fellow villagers told my grandmother that he saw me being buried. But she didn’t believe it and kept going to churches and lighting candles. Then near Belgorod-Dnistrovsky, when at night they crossed the estuary in order to overcome the minefield, seize a bridgehead and hold it until the main forces arrived. We had barely reached the middle of the estuary when enemy guns and machine guns struck from the opposite bank. Several motorboats sank, the rest reached the shore and captured it. When the Germans began to retreat, my platoon pursued them. I didn’t notice how I broke away from my paratroopers, a shell exploded nearby, and I was thrown back by the blast wave. I woke up when it got dark and heard German speech. The Germans walked across the battlefield and finished off our wounded.
I felt that they were approaching me, I held my breath, and suddenly the pain in my leg slashed like fire. One of the Nazis stabbed her with a bayonet to check if the “Russian Frau” was dead. Miraculously, I didn’t give myself away, and at dawn, when our battalions cleared the western bank of the Dniester estuary from the Nazis, local residents found me, bleeding. At the brigade headquarters they decided that I had died, and on the mass grave in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, among other names, mine appeared.
Well, the third time they buried me in Bulgaria, they carved my name on the monument, and when 25 years later I arrived in Burgas as an honorary citizen of the city, one of the women, during a meeting with the townspeople, recognized me and rushed to me with tears: “Daughter! You are alive!"
Ghosts in black peacoats
— The Nazis called you “Frau Black Death.” So, they recognized your strength and your doom, that is, they respected you?
“Black peacoats always brought mortal horror to them. Suddenness, audacity and fearlessness. My guys were desperate. But when the Krauts found out that there was a woman among them, at first they couldn’t believe it, and then they started hunting for me. As for respect, I don’t know, but I’ll tell you one more case. This was the most daring and most difficult operation that my special platoon was assigned to.
In February 1945 there were fierce battles for Budapest. Four days Marines made their way to the fortress where Hitler’s nest was located - the headquarters of the fascist executioner Horthy. All approaches to the castle were mined, and many firing points were equipped. The command of the 83rd brigade set the task: to penetrate the fortress at any cost. Examining all the nooks and crannies, the sailors noticed sewer hatch, went down into it and discovered an underground passage. The scouts reported that it was possible to go through the dungeon, but it was difficult to breathe there - there was a heavy stench that made you dizzy. Company commander Kuzmichev remembered that among the trophies we captured there were pillows with oxygen. We calculated that we had to go to the fourth well, and decided to take a risk. My platoon walked ahead of the company - one pillow between two, you take a saving breath and give it to your neighbor. The collector turned out to be narrower than expected, they walked bent over, their legs got stuck in the fetid mud. At the second well they heard a roar and clanging. They carefully pulled back the lid and immediately closed it - at the top the entire street was filled with tanks and armored vehicles. Lord, I thought, what awaits us at the fourth well? After all, this stinking dungeon can become ours mass grave, just throw a couple of grenades! At the fourth well the platoon stopped. My heart is pounding, but it was quiet up there. So, we calculated correctly.
Having left the well, the fighters scattered in a thin chain along the gray wall of the castle, and in a burst they killed the sentry. The sudden appearance of the “black commissars” threw the enemy into confusion; these seconds were enough for us to burst into the building while the machine gun started firing. The company and other units arrived in time - they took floor by floor and soon completely cleared the castle and surrounding areas of the Nazis. A German general was among the prisoners. He looked at us like we were ghosts, unable to understand how miraculously we ended up behind the lines of his troops.
When they told him that they had passed underground, he did not believe it until he saw the scouts who had not had time to wash themselves off from dirt and sewage. When I heard that the platoon commander was a girl, I again didn’t believe it and was offended: “You couldn’t think of a worse mockery?!”
They called me. I came to the headquarters, dirty as hell, it stinks from me a kilometer away. Major Kruglov, holding his nose with a handkerchief, turns to me: “Report how you captured the German general!” And suddenly the German hands me a Walter system pistol - apparently the guys searched him badly. “Frau Russisch Black Commissar! Gut! Gut! I widened my eyes at the political department, they nodded - take it. Then the guys made a personal inscription on this pistol for me...
- Evdokia Nikolaevna, after the war you didn’t want to continue military career in the navy? Look, they would have risen to the rank of rear admiral, like Grace Hopper.
- I was given directions to military school, but his injuries took their toll, and he had to leave the service. But I don’t regret it, because I met my love, raised my son and daughter. My grandchildren and great-grandchildren are growing up, although they predicted that I would have neither a husband nor children. When the Nazis were preparing for a counterattack on our troops in the area of Lake Balaton, my platoon stopped in a landowner's house. The hostess, who spoke a little Russian, saw me and recoiled: “Oh God, woman!” And then she began to convince me that weapons are a great sin and that heaven will punish me by not allowing my family to continue, and the earth will open up under me... As you can see, the old landowner was mistaken, I live. One for all my guys...
After the war, she traveled to many cities, military units, ships and submarines - everywhere she talked about my landing platoon. She spoke in schools so that children knew the truth and did not grow up as Ivans, not remembering their kinship. And now I go if they call me and my strength doesn’t let me down. Last August, I brought from Sevastopol thirty sets of vests and pea coats for the children from school No. 104 in Pushcha-Voditsa, where I happily went every year on May 9th. And on September 1, 2007, this school was solemnly named after the fascist thug Roman Shukhevych. Is my truth needed there now?..
Over the past two and a half months, she buried four close people at once - three sisters and a nephew. “You can’t get used to human losses,” says Evdokia Nikolaevna, “but you can still survive. The main thing is not to lose your memory and not to betray it. After all, the world rests on it, but how can you explain this to people?”
The staff of the weekly magazine “2000” wholeheartedly congratulates Guard Marine Colonel Evdokia Zavaliy,
and in her person to all our dear front-line soldiers, with the most important holiday - Victory Day. May your friends make you happy
and loved ones and health does not fail! Everlasting memory to those who are not next to us...
At the Black Sea Fleet, Maria Egorova shot the film "Evdokim and Evdokia"
"The television center of the Russian Black Sea Fleet won in one of the nominations of the IV International Film Festival of Screen Arts "Kinotur - 2007"
Journalists from the television center of the Russian Black Sea Fleet won one of the nominations at the IV International Film Festival of Screen Arts "Kinotour - 2007", which was held in Zhitomir.
The documentary and journalistic film “Evdokim and Evdokia” by the author Maria Egorova received a special diploma from the organizing committee of the film festival “For poetic realism in revealing the theme “Woman at War” on the screen. The film is dedicated to Evdokia Nikolaevna Zavaliy - the only woman in World War II who commanded a platoon of marines on the front line. This is the film’s second award. The film received its first award in the category “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” at the “We Won Together” film festival, held on May 9 in Yalta...."
Evdokia Nikolaevna Zavaliy was born on May 28, 1926 in the village of Novy Bug, Novobugsky district, Nikolaev region.
Before the war, she worked on the collective farm named after Kotsyubinsky, Novobugsky district. She hoeed sugar beets, turned hay, and raked golden wheat grains on the threshing floor. The war began for her on July 25.
This is what Evdokia Zavaliy remembers about this:
“Suddenly we see black spots appearing in the white sky above our village.
The brigadier whistled: “Parachute landing!” An increasing rumble was heard, and enemy planes began bombing. We rushed home. Running into the yard, I heard someone groan and, looking under the old Antonovka, I was stunned: a young border guard (there was a border post headquarters in our village) lying in a pool of blood. I don’t remember how I ran into the hut, tore the sheet into bandages, bandaged him as best I could, I looked - another one was wounded, then another...
When the last military unit left New Bug, fighting bloody battles, I persuaded the commander to take me with him. I wanted to run home for a blouse, but near the house I ran into my grandmother. Seeing me, the woman began to cry: “Oh, why are you so robish? Come back, my gold!”
And then she suddenly hugged her tightly, whispered something and looked into her eyes:
- Onuchechka! You will bleed four times! But the white geese will bring you... And she crossed herself.
My grandmother treated people with herbs and predicted fate. She lived in the world for 114 years.”
The unit with which Evdokia Zavaliy went to war was the 96th Cavalry Regiment of the 5th Cavalry Division of the 2nd Cavalry Corps. In order to be taken to the front, she had to add three years to herself and tell the regiment commander that she was 18. She served as a nurse in the regiment.
It is worth noting that in the materials about our heroine, including Wikipedia, it is written that Evdokia Nikolaevna was born in 1924, although she herself repeatedly said in interviews that she was not yet 16 at the start of the war. Here's one excerpt:
“I went to war when I was just a girl, I wasn’t even sixteen yet. I ran to the military commissar three times, and he kept telling me: “First wipe off the milk!” - “What kind of milk?” “Mother, it hasn’t dried out yet!”
and here's the second one:
“Girl, dear, we don’t take children to the front,” without even asking what issue Dusya came about, the military commissar announced his decision in a tired voice.
- Go home, your parents are probably already tired of waiting!
- Home? I want to beat the fascists!
“Look at you, your mother’s milk has not dried up yet, and go to the front,” the military commissar said irritably.
“According to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, those liable for military service born between 1905 and 1918 are subject to mobilization,” he reminded the girl at parting.
After leaving the military commissar Dusya, she decided to come again. But the second visit did not bring the desired result.
- Oh, defender of the Motherland! – I met her as an acquaintance as a military commissar, – and how old is this defender?
- Seventeen!
Which is obviously this moment is the primary source of biographical data for other publications about Evdokia Nikolaevna; when determining her date of birth, it refers to the resource “ The best people Ukraine", where the date is May 28, 1924. Undoubtedly, it was from Wikipedia that this date spread throughout the Internet.
We will proceed from the fact that it is better for Evdokia Nikolaevna to know how old she was when she went to war, so in this article they wrote that she was born not in 1924, but in 1926.
After the unit managed to escape from encirclement in her native village on August 13, 1941, Evdokia Nikolaevna asked the soldiers to show how to handle. I learned to shoot from a carbine, pistol and machine gun.
Soon, during a retreat while crossing the Dnieper near the island of Khortitsa, she received a penetrating wound in the stomach from a shell explosion. I ended up in a hospital in the village of Kurgannaya near Krasnodar. The doctor wanted to give her a commission, but she insisted that she be left in the army. After being discharged from the hospital, Evdokia Nikolaevna was sent to the reserve regiment. There she received her first award - the Order of the Red Star. During the bombing, she pulled out a wounded unconscious officer on a raincoat, bandaged him and brought him to life, for which she was awarded.
There her transformation into a man happened. Here is what she herself recalls about this:
After being wounded, they sent me to a reserve regiment. And it was there that the “buyers” from the command came to recruit guys for the front line. One of them, a sailor, calls me: “Guard senior sergeant, show your documents!” He opens my letter and reads: “Senior Sergeant Zavaliy Evdok.” It was at the hospital that my name was shortened that way. “Zavaliy Evdokim?” And I told him, without batting an eyelid:
“That’s right, comrade commander! Zavaliy Evdokim Nikolaevich! - “I give you fifteen minutes to get ready!”
- "Eat!"
He had no idea that there was a girl in front of him. And I didn’t stand out among the guys in any way: the same tunic and riding breeches, on my head after the hospital - a “hedgehog” with a forelock - the braid had to be shaved off so that the lice wouldn’t bother me. They gave me ammunition, uniforms, and then sent me... to the bathhouse.
- Is this where the deception was revealed? "Evdokim" was exposed...
- What are you talking about! If they had found out then, they wouldn’t have blown my head off. Execution article, the command is not to be trifled with! I’m standing there, neither alive nor dead, with my basin, and the guys running by in the clothes their mother gave birth to wash themselves. I looked at the medical battalion tent and decided to pick at the blood on my face so that there would be no time for a bath. At the medical battalion, my wounds were treated, and two and a half hours later, near the village of Goryachiy Klyuch, senior sergeant Evdokim Zavaliy took part in the battle as part of the sixth airborne brigade.
After Evdokia Nikolaevna captured a German officer near Mozdok, she was appointed commander of the intelligence department. Here is how Nikolai Boyko describes one of her combat episodes near Mozdok in the fall of 1942:
“The paratrooper unit, in which senior sergeant Evdokim Zavaliy fought, was ordered to retreat to previously occupied positions.
We retreated, gained a foothold, and it turned out that it was not in vain. The Nazis surrounded a handful of Soviet paratroopers in a tight ring. For seven days the fighters, showing examples of heroism, held their positions. Ammunition was running out, something had to be done. And here Evdokim suggested crossing to the other side of the stormy river and trying to replenish the supply of ammunition, as well as get food, they were also already running out.
In the trench, they accidentally found a cable, one end of which the paratroopers hooked on a tree, and the second - the senior sergeant picked it up and went to the enemy shore. It was getting light, the cold water “encouraged” the girl and now she was already there. I took a closer look. There are no fascists in sight.
“Yes, at this early hour, the German patrol probably fell into hibernation,” thought Dusya. Careful not to give herself away, she began collecting ammunition. The Germans had not yet managed to remove their dead, so there was enough ammunition and grenades.
“We put a lot of them, they will know the Soviet paratroopers,” with these thoughts Dusya put the collected ammunition in two raincoats. She placed the priceless cargo on a kind of raft, hastily assembled from the lids of shell boxes, tied the second end of the cable to an unusual craft and, entering the water, signaled to the paratroopers that she was ready to transport the ammunition.
Returning again to the enemy shore, Dusya changed into a German uniform and took up a position in the roadside bushes.
Morning has come. Fascist tanks went along the highway, letting them pass, Dusya began to wait for more suitable transport. And her wait and patience were crowned with success. When the tanks disappeared beyond the village of Goryachiy Klyuch, trucks followed them. Dusya let them come close and fired a burst from the machine gun. The sailors on the other side supported her by firing from an anti-tank rifle. A shot from an anti-tank rifle was a direct hit on a car, it caught fire, then a second truck was hit...
Running up to the cab of one truck, Dusya discovered a living fascist and used a machine gun to silence him once and for all. She rushed to the back of the car, another fascist was lying under the tarpaulin, having eliminated him too, she found bread and canned food in the car.
– Yeah, I’m hungry, you fascist evil spirits! Today I will have to fast.
The girl thought, packing bread and canned food into her raincoat, pleased that she had completed the task, and, letting the paratroopers know to carry food to her, she went to her soldiers.
The Germans discovered her when she began to swim across the river and opened mortar and machine-gun fire, but it was too late - senior sergeant Evdokim Zavaliy was met by his comrades and returned fire with ammunition that was transported from the enemy bank by Dusya the scout, it is true that this is a girl, paratroopers We found out later."
Very heavy fighting took place in Kuban, near the village of Krymskaya. Evdokim Zavaliy was already a company sergeant major. There the company was surrounded, and in the midst of the battle the commander died. Noticing the confusion of the soldiers, Evdokia Nikolaevna rose to her full height and shouted: “Company! Listen to me! Forward, follow me! The fighters went on the attack, and managed to break the enemy’s resistance and escape from the encirclement. In this battle, our heroine received a second serious wound. That’s when “Evdokim” was exposed.
"Unexposed" under male name Evdokia Zavaliy fought for 8 months.
Evdokia Nikolaevna was afraid that after being exposed, she would be sent back to work as a nurse. However, taking into account her military merits, she was sent in February 1943 to a junior lieutenant course in the city of Frunze (now Bishkek).
In October 1943, Lieutenant Evdokia Zavaliy was appointed platoon commander of a separate company of machine gunners of the 83rd Marine Brigade. After this appointment, some wits from other platoons laughed, calling her unit “Duskin Platoon.”
At first, Evdokia Nikolaevna’s efforts were aimed at ensuring that the soldiers recognized her as a commander - after all, where has it been seen that a woman (and Evdokia Zavaliy was actually 17 years old at the time) commanded men in war.
“There was such a Vanya Posevnykh,” said Evdokia Nikolaevna. “When he appeared in the platoon, he looked at me contemptuously and said that he would not obey the woman. I command him: “Get out of formation!” - but he doesn’t come out...”
In the end, the soldiers recognized her as their commander:
“I understood my responsibility as a platoon commander to lead the guys into the attack,” said Zavaliy. “I get up and shout: “For the Motherland!” For Stalin! Attack! Forward!" And they all rise up after me, catch up and overtake me to protect me from bullets. By the way, in the battles for Budapest, Vanya Posevnykh shielded me with his chest from a sniper shot. For this feat Vanya was posthumously awarded the order Red Star..."
Evdokia Nikolaevna considered it fundamentally impossible to start “amorous affairs” at the front:
“If at least some thoughts arose on this matter, that’s it - no platoon and no commander. I was a man for them, and we, the Marines, had no time for love. Ask other branches of the military about this, maybe they’ll tell you something. But I have nothing to tell, except that I returned home after the war, clear as the sky and stars...”
Alexander Aleksandrovich Kuzmichev, commander of a company of machine gunners of the 83rd Marine Brigade, noted in his post-war memoirs that the platoon of Guard Lieutenant Evdokia Zavaliy was always at the forefront of hostilities, serving as a battering ram during the advance of the Marine Brigade. They were sent to places where it was especially difficult.
Evdokia Zavaliy and her platoon terrified the Nazis with daring attacks, for which the Germans began to call the girl “Frau Black Death.” She took part in the largest landing operation period of the Great Patriotic War– Kerch-Eltigen. Under heavy enemy fire, the Marines managed to gain a foothold on the bridgehead and ensured the landing of the main forces. For this operation she received the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
For the assault on Sapun Mountain on May 7, 1944 during the liberation of Sevastopol, she was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree.
She was buried twice, and her name appeared on mass graves. The first time was near Belgorod-Dnistrovsky, when they crossed the estuary at night in order to, having overcome the minefield, seize a bridgehead and hold it until the main forces arrived.
This is what Evdokia Nikolaevna said:
We had barely reached the middle of the estuary when enemy guns and machine guns struck from the opposite bank. Several motorboats sank, the rest reached the shore and captured it. When the Germans began to retreat, my platoon pursued them. I didn’t notice how I broke away from my paratroopers, a shell exploded nearby, and I was thrown back by the blast wave. I woke up when it got dark and heard German speech. The Germans walked across the battlefield and finished off our wounded.
I felt that they were approaching me, I held my breath, and suddenly the pain in my leg slashed like fire. One of the Nazis stabbed her with a bayonet to check if the “Russian Frau” was dead. Miraculously, I didn’t give myself away, and at dawn, when our battalions cleared the western bank of the Dniester estuary from the Nazis, local residents found me, bleeding. At the brigade headquarters they decided that I had died, and on the mass grave in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, among other names, mine appeared.
The second time she was buried in Bulgaria, and her name was carved on the monument. When, 25 years later, she arrived in Burgas as an honorary citizen of the city, one of the women, during a meeting with the townspeople, recognized Evdokia Nikolaevna and rushed to her with tears: “Daughter! You are alive!".
During the Budapest offensive operation(it is considered one of the bloodiest battles in humanity) the platoon of Evdokia Zavaliy was assigned to take the headquarters of the German command. It was decided to go through a sewer canal filled with sewage. Since there was nothing to breathe there, 15 oxygen bags were issued, which the soldiers used in turn while moving along the collector. Unfortunately, they did not help everyone - two marines suffocated and remained in the dungeon forever.
They began to reach the surface at the third sewer hatch, having previously destroyed the guards - two Germans with a machine gun. They broke into the bunker. The Germans, who did not expect this, offered no resistance. The most valuable trophy was the operational cards. Having “mastered” the bunker, the scouts began firing from it. An incredible panic arose on the street... Not understanding why they were shooting from their own bunker, the fascist warriors began hitting each other with machine guns. The tank crews opened indiscriminate fire.
The company and other units arrived in time - they took floor by floor and soon completely cleared the castle and surrounding areas of the Nazis.
They took the general prisoner - he did not believe that the scouts had gone underground until he saw them, who had not had time to wash themselves off the dirt and sewage. When I heard that the platoon commander was a girl, I again didn’t believe it and was offended: “You couldn’t think of a worse mockery?!”
Evdokia Nikolaevna further recalls:
“They called me. I came to the headquarters, dirty as hell, it stinks from me a kilometer away. Major Kruglov, holding his nose with a handkerchief, turns to me: “Report how you captured the German general!” And suddenly the German hands me a Walter system pistol - apparently the guys searched him badly. “Frau Russisch Black Commissar! Gut! Gut! I rolled my eyes at the political department, they nodded - take it. Then the guys made a personal inscription for me on this pistol...”
For this operation, Evdokia Zavaliy was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
“After that operation, I had one thought - how to wash myself off this dirt,” recalled Evdokia Zavaliy. “We went to some local perfume shop, and I started pouring everything that came to hand into the pot, and then I poured it all on myself. Since then I can’t stand perfume!”
One of the front-line newspapers of that time reported on the heroism of the guards: “Soldiers led by a female officer were landed behind enemy lines by landing boats. The task was set to block the road along which the fascist units defeated near Budapest were retreating to Vienna. For six days the guys fought off the enemy’s furious attacks. And then bombs rained down on them from the air. “Tigers” moved towards the sailors from the direction of Budapest. It seemed that everything was over. A handful of Marines will not stand it, they will not stand. But while help arrived, seven fascist tanks were burning in front of the brave trenches. "Tigers" were set on fire by sailors from Lieutenant Zavaliy's platoon..."
The war continued. It was ordered to take Hill 203, which was an important strategic point. Evdokia Zavaliy's platoon boarded the boats and sailed to an unfamiliar shore. En route he was attacked by enemy planes. There were killed and wounded, two boats were sunk. And yet they rose to the heights and dug in. Fourteen attacks were repulsed during the day. They took care of the cartridges. They only shot with precision. On the second day, supplies ran out. Not a cracker, not a sip of water. At night, a plane descended over the detachment, dropped two bags of food, but it was unsuccessful - one flew down a slope, the other got caught in a bush and hung over the cliff. We tried to get it but lost three sailors: German snipers killed. The fourth was wounded in the arms and legs, but he still took out a bag, got to the trench with it, and then he was struck to death. The height was defended. For this operation, the Marines were awarded. Our heroine received the Order of the Red Banner.
The grandmother's prediction came true - she was wounded 4 times. After one of the wounds, an urgent blood transfusion was required and a member of her platoon, Gasan Huseynov, without hesitation, donated his blood and thereby saved her life.
Guard Lieutenant Evdokia Zavaliy went through a glorious military path - she participated in the defense of the Caucasus, in the battles for the Crimea, Bessarabia, on the Danube, in the liberation of Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia.
After the end of the war, they wanted to send her to study at a military school, but 4 wounds and 2 concussions she received during the war took their toll. In 1947, she was demobilized and went to Kyiv. Her military past did not leave her for a long time: “After the war, I went on the attack at night for a long time. She screamed so loudly that the neighbors were scared. And my grandmother prayed and told my mother: “It’s an unclean spirit coming out of her!” - Evdokia Nikolaevna recalled.
In Kyiv she met her future husband and got married. She has 2 children, 4 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. She worked as a grocery store director.
Vela active work among young people. She traveled to many cities, military units, ships and submarines with stories about her Marine Corps platoon.
Guard Colonel of the Marine Corps Evdokia Nikolaevna Zavaliy died in Kyiv on May 5, 2010.
Recipient of four military orders and almost 40 medals:
- Order of the October Revolution
- Order of the Red Banner
- Order of the Red Star
- Order of the Patriotic War I and II degrees
- Medal of Honor"
- Medal "For the Defense of Sevastopol"
- medal "For the capture of Budapest"
- Medal "For the Capture of Vienna"
- Medal "For the Liberation of Belgrade"
- other orders and medals
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In front of you is the commander of a marine platoon, Evdokia Zavaliy. I highly recommend reading the story of this wonderful woman who, unfortunately, is no longer with us. This is a legendary man, a man with a truly unique biography, and especially for the Navy.
“Duskin’s platoon”, “Duskin’s guards” - this is what her colleagues called her unit, which was a model of courage and perseverance, and her enemies - Frau “Black Death”.
Evdokia Nikolaevna Zavaliy (Ukrainian: Evdokiya Mykolaivna Zavaliy; May 28, 1924 - May 5, 2010) - the only woman- Commander of a Marine Corps platoon during the Great Patriotic War, Guard Colonel. 
The commander of a platoon of marines during the Great Patriotic War, Lieutenant Evdokia Nikolaevna Zavaliy. She did not live until Victory Day only four days.
The long-standing belief that a woman in the navy is an anomalous phenomenon is now perceived as something of a relic.
And although some men are still skeptical about ladies in peacoats, the fair sex has long won its place in the sun in the naval crews of many countries. In Norway, even the Navy's holy of holies - submarines - could not withstand the onslaught of the sea Amazons.
In Russia, the commandment of Peter I that “there should be no women in the navy” was first violated by the Greek Laskarina Boubulina, the only female admiral of the Russian Fleet in history. In the United States, the first sailor was Grace Hopper, a rear admiral of the American Navy.
Ukraine also has its own woman legend. A man of amazing destiny and with a biography unique in the history of the navy. Guard Colonel of the Marine Corps Evdokia Zavaliy is the only representative of the fairer sex who led a platoon of marines operating on the front line during the Second World War.
... I am trying in vain to find in the appearance of a short, thin woman the features of selectivity that allowed her, at seventeen years old, to command fifty strong men, terrifying the Nazis with daring attacks, for which she received from them the nickname “Frau Black Commissioner” or “Frau Black Death.” Literally from the threshold, Evdokia Nikolaevna commands me: “Let's go to the table! The naval soup is getting cold!” It sounds like an order, and I understand that objections are pointless - the platoon commander is in his element.
Fatal memory
Evdokia Nikolaevna, tell me a secret: how did you manage to lead a platoon of paratroopers, maybe they knew a charm word?
The words are the most common: “Platoon! Listen to my command! I’ve always had a loud voice; since childhood I’ve sung songs to my accordion. At first, of course, the boys would grunt in my direction, but I didn’t pay attention. Never mind, I think I’ll show you Kuzka’s mother! Will to fist, wild eyes and - forward! I wanted to wipe the men’s noses, to show that I could fight no worse, if not better, than them. And they got used to me and respected me. If she had not been accepted as a commander, she would have been killed a hundred times. After all, the Germans were hunting for me after they found out that the “black commissars” were commanded by a woman, but my guys came to the rescue every time.
I raise them to attack: “Follow me!” They catch up and go around me, covering me, fearless, desperate - Zhora Dorofeev, Petro Moroz, Sasha Kozhevnikov, three Dimas - Vaklersky, Sobinov and Sedykh... Each of my fifty-five machine gunners is still standing before my eyes, although none of them are alive anymore . Dimka Sedykh threw himself under the tank with the last grenade, Misha Panikakho burned alive, doused with a flammable mixture, but managed to jump on the enemy tank and set it on fire, Vanya Posevnykh... When he appeared in the platoon, he looked at him with a contemptuous look: “I don’t want to obey a woman!” And in the battles for Budapest, he protected me from a sniper shot, exposing his chest... Only sixteen of my guys reached Victory, today I am the only one left from our special platoon of the 83rd Marine Brigade.
Evdokia Nikolaevna falls silent, trying to calm down the tears flowing in streams down her cheeks, and I, not knowing how to console, turn the conversation in a different direction - to where it shouldn’t hurt.
You probably grew up as a kid - you ruled in the yard, were you the ringleader?
She doesn’t seem to hear the question - the heart-tearing fatal memory of 65 years of endurance does not let her go.
I'm not used to losing. At the front, I hid my tears under my raincoat so that, God forbid, someone would see and suspect me of weakness. You see, I simply had no right to be weak, to be afraid. But I was still afraid... of rats. I couldn’t help myself, rats were worse than the Germans for me - they were hungry, they would rush at my face at night, and gnaw at my heels. Brr! It's better not to remember...
I went to war when I was just a girl, I wasn’t even sixteen yet. I ran to the military commissar three times, and he kept telling me: “First wipe off the milk!” - “What kind of milk?” “Mother, it hasn’t dried out yet!” But the front was approaching, and soon the war itself came for me. I still remember this day, July 25th. The sun-scorched steppe in my native Nikolaev region, the collective farm field where my friends and I were in a hurry to harvest the harvest, earning workdays. Suddenly we see black spots appearing in the white sky above our village.
The brigadier whistled: “Parachute landing!” An increasing rumble was heard, and enemy planes began bombing. We rushed home. Running into the yard, I heard someone groan and, looking under the old Antonovka, I was stunned: a young border guard (there was a border post headquarters in our village) lying in a pool of blood. I don’t remember how I ran into the hut, tore the sheet into bandages, bandaged him as best I could, I looked - another one was wounded, then another...
When the last military unit left New Bug, fighting bloody battles, I persuaded the commander to take me with him. I wanted to run home for a blouse, but near the house I ran into my grandmother. Seeing me, the woman began to cry: “Oh, why are you so robish? Come back, my gold!”
And then she suddenly hugged her tightly, whispered something and looked into her eyes:
Onuchechka! You will bleed four times! But the white geese will bring you... And she crossed herself. My grandmother treated people with herbs and predicted fate. She lived in the world for 114 years.
Did grandma's prediction come true?
As I said, it happened. Four wounds and two shell shocks - I returned from the war with such trophies. The first time I was wounded was on Khortitsa, when, during the retreat, our 96th cavalry regiment, where I served as a nurse, took on a difficult battle. We had to cross the Dnieper by swimming, on flimsy rafts made from scrap material. There the enemy shell overtook him. After a penetrating wound to the stomach, she was taken to a hospital near Krasnodar. The head doctor examined me: “Well, that’s it, girl, she fought back. Get your letter and go home.” She answered as bluntly as “I have nowhere to go!” Send to the front!
After being wounded, they sent me to a reserve regiment. And it was there that the “buyers” from the command came to recruit guys for the front line. One of them, a sailor, calls me: “Guard senior sergeant, show your documents!” He opens my letter and reads: “Senior Sergeant Zavaliy Evdok.” It was at the hospital that my name was shortened that way. “Zavaliy Evdokim?” And I told him, without blinking an eye: “That’s right, comrade commander! Zavaliy Evdokim Nikolaevich! - “I give you fifteen minutes to get ready!” - "Eat!"
He had no idea that there was a girl in front of him. And I didn’t stand out among the guys in any way: the same tunic and riding breeches, on my head after the hospital - a “hedgehog” with a forelock - the braid had to be shaved off so that the lice wouldn’t bother me. They gave me ammunition, uniforms, and then sent me... to the bathhouse.
Is this where the deception was revealed? "Evdokim" was exposed...
What are you talking about? If they had found out then, they wouldn’t have blown my head off. Execution article, the command is not to be trifled with! I’m standing there, neither alive nor dead, with my basin, and the guys running by in the clothes their mother gave birth to wash themselves. I looked at the medical battalion tent and decided to pick at the blood on my face so that there would be no time for a bath. At the medical battalion, my wounds were treated, and two and a half hours later, near the village of Goryachiy Klyuch, senior sergeant Evdokim Zavaliy took part in the battle as part of the sixth airborne brigade.
Are you saying that you managed to quietly join male society and remain unclassified there for some time? Sorry, but this seems incredible...
Nevertheless, I managed to hold out for about a year. Nobody guessed anything. I was immediately recognized as “their guy,” and after I captured a German officer near Mazdok, I was sent to the intelligence department, and soon I became his commander. Very heavy fighting took place in Kuban, near the village of Krymskaya. There our company was surrounded. In the midst of the battle, the commander died, and, noticing the confusion of the soldiers, I, the company sergeant major, stood up to my full “giant” height and shouted: “Company! Listen to me! Forward, follow me! The soldiers went on the attack, and we managed to break the enemy’s resistance and get out of the encirclement. In this battle I received my second serious wound. That’s when “Evdokim” was exposed.
And what were the consequences? Did the command give you nuts?
Nobody even made a peep. Probably, they took into account my military merits and gave me a direction to a six-month course for junior lieutenants. After them, in October 443, they were sent to the 83rd Marine Brigade of the Red Banner Danube Flotilla and entrusted with a platoon. So I turned from “Comrade Evdokim” into “Lieutenant Dusya”. The sailors came across to me as a perfect choice - tall, strong, desperate lads. The guys from neighboring platoons initially laughed at us: “Duskin’s platoon!” But time passed, and they began to call them respectfully: “Dusin’s guards.” And my machine gunners called me like a man - commander, and sometimes affectionately Evdokimushka...
There won't be three deaths
That is, the soldiers began to perceive you not only as a commander, but also as a woman. Tell me honestly, your heart never skipped a beat? Have you caught loving glances on yourself?
What are you talking about! If at least some thoughts arose on this matter, that’s it - there is no platoon and no commander. I was a man for them, and we, the Marines, had no time for love. Ask other branches of the military about this, maybe they’ll tell you something. But I have nothing to tell, except that I returned home after the war, clear as the sky and stars...
My tactless question excited Evdokia Nikolaevna, and command notes appeared in her voice again: “Take that newspaper over there!” I hand her a tattered piece of newspaper from a solid home archive laid out on the table. She returns it to me: “Read!”
- “The fighters, led by a female officer, were landed behind enemy lines by landing boats. The task was set to block the road along which the fascist units defeated near Budapest were retreating to Vienna. For 6 days the guys fought off the enemy’s furious attacks. And then bombs rained down on them from the air. “Tigers” moved towards the sailors from the direction of Budapest. It seemed that everything was over. A handful of Marines will not stand it, they will not stand. But while help arrived, seven fascist tanks were burning in front of the brave trenches. "Tigers" were set on fire by sailors from Lieutenant Zavaliy's platoon..."
Evdokia Nikolaevna interrupts me:
This is the kind of “love” we had, baby. And you say, looks...
Sevastopol, Sapun Mountain, Balaklava, Novorossiysk, Kerch catacombs. 8-9 attacks in one day. After the war, I “went on the attack” for a long time at night. She screamed so loudly that the neighbors were scared. And my grandmother prayed and told my mother: “It’s an unclean spirit coming out of her, Donya!” Probably, thanks to these prayers and conspiracies of hers, I still live, although I was buried three times...
I listen to her story and think: probably, when a person becomes a legend during his lifetime, he perceives mysticism and mythology as an objective reality. Forgetting what is truth and what is fiction. But just in case, let me clarify:
How many times?
She does not react to the stupid question and continues, looking through me into her past:
At the very beginning of the war, one of my fellow villagers told my grandmother that he saw me being buried. But she didn’t believe it and kept going to churches and lighting candles. Then near Belgorod-Dnistrovsky, when at night they crossed the estuary in order to overcome the minefield, seize a bridgehead and hold it until the main forces arrived. We had barely reached the middle of the estuary when enemy guns and machine guns struck from the opposite bank. Several motorboats sank, the rest reached the shore and captured it. When the Germans began to retreat, my platoon pursued them. I didn’t notice how I broke away from my paratroopers, a shell exploded nearby, and I was thrown back by the blast wave. I woke up when it got dark and heard German speech. The Germans walked across the battlefield and finished off our wounded.
I felt that they were approaching me, I held my breath, and suddenly the pain in my leg slashed like fire. One of the Nazis stabbed her with a bayonet to check if the “Russian Frau” was dead. Miraculously, I didn’t give myself away, and at dawn, when our battalions cleared the western bank of the Dniester estuary from the Nazis, local residents found me, bleeding. At the brigade headquarters they decided that I had died, and on the mass grave in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, among other names, mine appeared.
Well, the third time they buried me in Bulgaria, they carved my name on the monument, and when 25 years later I arrived in Burgas as an honorary citizen of the city, one of the women, during a meeting with the townspeople, recognized me and rushed to me with tears: “Daughter! You are alive!"
Ghosts in black peacoats
The Nazis called you “Frau Black Death.” So, they recognized your strength and your doom, that is, they respected you?
Black peacoats always brought mortal horror to them. Suddenness, audacity and fearlessness. My guys were desperate. But when the Krauts found out that there was a woman among them, at first they couldn’t believe it, and then they started hunting for me. As for respect, I don’t know, but I’ll tell you one more case. This was the most daring and most difficult operation that my special platoon was assigned to.
In February 1945 there were fierce battles for Budapest. For four days, the Marines fought their way to the fortress where Hitler’s nest was located - the headquarters of the fascist executioner Horthy. All approaches to the castle were mined, and many firing points were equipped. The command of the 83rd brigade set the task: to penetrate the fortress at any cost. Examining all the nooks and crannies, the sailors paid attention to the sewer hatch, went down into it and discovered an underground passage. The scouts reported that it was possible to go through the dungeon, but it was difficult to breathe there - there was a heavy stench that made you dizzy. Company commander Kuzmichev remembered that among the trophies we captured there were pillows with oxygen. We calculated that we had to go to the fourth well, and decided to take a risk. My platoon walked ahead of the company - one pillow for two, you take a saving breath and give it to your neighbor. The collector turned out to be narrower than expected, they walked bent over, their legs got stuck in the fetid mud. At the second well they heard a roar and clanging. They carefully pulled back the lid and immediately closed it - at the top the entire street was filled with tanks and armored vehicles. Lord, I thought, what awaits us at the fourth well? After all, this stinking dungeon can become our mass grave, just throw a couple of grenades! At the fourth well the platoon stopped. My heart is pounding, but it was quiet up there. So, we calculated correctly.
Having left the well, the fighters scattered in a thin chain along the gray wall of the castle, and in a burst they killed the sentry. The sudden appearance of the “black commissars” threw the enemy into confusion; these seconds were enough for us to burst into the building while the machine gun started firing. The company and other units arrived in time - they took floor by floor and soon completely cleared the castle and surrounding areas of the Nazis. A German general was among the prisoners. He looked at us like we were ghosts, unable to understand how miraculously we ended up behind the lines of his troops.
When they told him that they had passed underground, he did not believe it until he saw the scouts who had not had time to wash themselves off from dirt and sewage. When I heard that the platoon commander was a girl, I again didn’t believe it and was offended: “You couldn’t think of a worse mockery?!”
They called me. I came to the headquarters, dirty as hell, it stinks from me a kilometer away. Major Kruglov, holding his nose with a handkerchief, turns to me: “Report how you captured the German general!” And suddenly the German hands me a Walter system pistol - apparently the guys searched him badly. “Frau Russisch Black Commissar! Gut! Gut! I rolled my eyes at the political department, they nodded - take it. Then the guys made a personal inscription on this pistol for me...
Evdokia Nikolaevna, after the war, didn’t you want to continue your military career in the navy? Look, they would have risen to the rank of rear admiral, like Grace Hopper.
I was given a referral to a military school, but my injuries took their toll and I had to leave the service. But I don’t regret it, because I met my love, raised my son and daughter. My grandchildren and great-grandchildren are growing up, although they predicted that I would have neither a husband nor children. When the Nazis were preparing for a counterattack on our troops in the area of Lake Balaton, my platoon stopped in a landowner's house. The hostess, who spoke a little Russian, saw me and recoiled: “Oh God, woman!” And then she began to convince me that weapons are a great sin and that heaven will punish me by not allowing my family to continue, and the earth will open up under me... As you can see, the old landowner was mistaken, I live. One for all my guys...
After the war, I traveled to many cities, military units, ships and submarines - everywhere I talked about my landing platoon. She spoke in schools so that children knew the truth and did not grow up as Ivans, not remembering their kinship. And now I go if they call me and my strength doesn’t let me down. Last August, I brought from Sevastopol thirty sets of vests and pea coats for the children from school No. 104 in Pushcha-Voditsa, where I happily went every year on May 9th. And on September 1, 2007, this school was solemnly named after the fascist thug Roman Shukhevych. Is my truth needed there now?..
Over the past two and a half months, she buried four close people at once - three sisters and a nephew. “You can’t get used to human losses,” says Evdokia Nikolaevna, “but you can still survive. The main thing is not to lose your memory and not betray it. After all, the world rests on it, but how can you explain this to people?”
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