Behind all wars there are millions of stories of suffering, death and despair. Wives, husbands, children, parents... have had to resign themselves to the loss of a loved one... or not, as in the case of the Russian Mariya Oktyabrskaya . She lost her husband during the Second World War and decided not to mourn the loss of her husband... she used all her resources to take revenge on the Germans.
Mariya was born in 1905 in a small town in the Crimea region. From a humble family of peasants and with 9 siblings, she had to combine school with work in a canning factory to help the family economy. After completing her studies in high school, she got a job as a telephone switchboard operator…until, at just 20 years old, she crossed paths with a handsome Red Army officer. They got married and Mariya left everything to accompany her husband to the different destinations and military bases where he was sent. Military life allowed Mariya to become familiar with handling weapons, driving military vehicles, learning basic first aid, and participating in officers' wives' meetings and associations. Everything changed with the beginning of the Second World War and, above all, with the German offensive to invade the Soviet Union in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa ). Mariya's husband was transferred to the front and the wives of the military were sent to Tomsk (Siberia), away from the fighting. After almost two years waiting for news of her husband, that fateful day arrived:her husband had died in kyiv in August 1941, just a few weeks after separating from her. The rest of the wives were resigned and mourned the loss of her husband, but she did not… Mariya swore revenge .
Mariya Oktyabrskaya
What could she do? She sold all her possessions and financing her buys her a T-34 tank. to donate it to the Red Army, but on one condition:she would be the driver. She and she thus exposed it by letter to the State Defense Committee. Although surprised by such a strange proposal, they saw in that gesture a good publicity hook to involve the population in general, and women in particular, in the fight against the invading army. Mariya's request was approved and she was enlisted as a driver-mechanic in the 26th Guards Tank Brigade. After a five-month training period, with the doubts of her training partners and, occasionally, some joke or another, in October 1943 Mariya was going to have her baptism of fire at the controls of Fighting Girlfriend (Companion in arms), that's what she called her tank and that's how she wore an inscription on the turret of the T-34 (logically, in Russian). Her comrades' jeers turned to admiration when her brigade was fighting in the Smolensk area: Fighting Girlfriend she broke formation and charged into the enemy ranks destroying several artillery pieces and putting the Germans to flight.
Fighting Girlfriend
After a little slap on the ears from her superiors for that act of indiscipline, they had no choice but to recognize the value of that woman, once a simple advertising claim. She would also be one of the protagonists when the Soviets recaptured the city of Nóvoie Selo in November 1943. Mariya seemed not to fear death, she was daring and, also, undisciplined… she had too many ballots not to survive the war:the night of the 17 On January 1, 1944, in an operation against a fortified German position, an anti-tank bomb shattered the caterpillar tracks, leaving Fighting Girlfriend still; Despite receiving orders not to leave the tank, Ella Mariya went out with the rest of the crew to try to fix her chains... when a piece of shrapnel hit her head leaving her unconscious. She remained in a coma for two months and on March 15, 1944 she passed away.
Mariya Oktyabrskaya , the woman who bought a tank to avenge the death of her husband received on August 2, 1944 the title of Heroine of the Soviet Union , the highest distinction awarded by the Soviet Union for heroic deeds in the service of the State and society.