Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya (; September 13, 1923 – November 29, 1941) was a Soviet partisan. She was executed after acts of sabotage against the invading armies of Nazi Germany. After stories emerged of her defiance towards her captors, she was posthumously declared a Hero of the Soviet Union. She became one of the most revered heroines of the Soviet Union.

Family

The Kosmodemyansky family name was constructed by joining the names of Saints Cosmas and Damian ( () and () in Russian). From the 17th century, the Kosmodemyansky were priests in the Russian Orthodox Church. Zoya's grandfather Pyotr Kosmodemyansky was murdered in 1918 by militant atheists for his opposition to blasphemy.

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya (her name is a Russian form of the Greek name Zoe, which means "life") was born in September 13, 1923 in the village of Osino-Gay () (meaning Aspen Woods), near the city of Tambov. Her father, Anatoly Kosmodemyansky, studied in a theological seminary, but did not graduate. He later worked as a librarian. Her mother, Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya (née Churikova), was a school teacher. In 1925, Zoya's brother, Aleksandr Kosmodemyansky, was born. Like his sister, he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, and, like Zoya, posthumously. In 1929, the family moved to Siberia for fear of persecution. In 1930, they moved to Moscow.

Life and death

Kosmodemyanskaya joined the Komsomol in 1938. In October 1941, still a high school student in Moscow, she volunteered for a partisan unit. During the course of her army service, she idealized Tatiana Solomakha, a Red Army soldier who was tortured and killed during the course of the Russian Civil War. The partisans believed that one of the houses was being used as a German communications center and that occupying forces were using others for accommodation. but refused to give any information. The following morning she was marched to the center of the village with a board around her neck bearing the inscription 'Houseburner' and hanged.

According to Soviet accounts, final words were:

and to the Germans:

in the Soviet accounts, before the moment of hanging, with the rope on her neck, she said:

The Germans left her body hanging on the gallows for several weeks. One of her breasts was cut off by a drunk German near Christmas Eve, and her body desecrated by Germans or collaborators.

Legacy

alt=Essay by Pyotr Lidov “Tanya”, Pravda newspaper, January 27, 1942, photo by Sergei Strunnikov.|thumb|Essay by Pyotr Lidov «Tanya», «Pravda» newspaper, January 27, 1942, photo by Sergei Strunnikov.

The story of Kosmodemyanskaya's death became popular after Pravda published an article written by Pyotr Lidov on January 27, 1942.

Kosmodemyanskaya's account was repeatedly published in Pravda. Harris writes that "Recognizing the value of Zoya's image and narrative, the Soviet Union quickly began shaping Zoya's image to suit its own purposes... The Komsomol and educational system introduced young people to Zoya through organized museum visits, presentations and politically correct readings... Zoya quickly became the most revered Soviet heroine, and numerous Soviet public monuments to her were commissioned, in a top-down manner." In 1944, the film Zoya was made about her. She was also referred to in the film Girl No. 217, which depicted atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war by the Nazis. Her image was also used frequently in anti-German propaganda which encouraged violence against the German occupying forces.

Many streets, kolkhozes and Pioneer organizations in the Soviet Union were named after Kosmodemyanskaya. Her portrait became a part of ceremonial procedures of commemoration performed by pioneers, and was used as a symbol of the highest distinction awarded to the best class in school. The Soviets erected a monument in her honour not far from the village of Petrishchevo. Another statue is located at the Partizanskaya Moscow Metro station. A 4108-meter (13,478 feet) mountain peak in Trans-Ili Alatau is named after her. A minor planet 1793 Zoya, discovered in 1968 by Soviet astronomer Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova, is named after her. Kosmodemyanskaya is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Zoya Phan, an outspoken political activist for the Karen people and member of the Burma Campaign UK, was named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya by her father, Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan. He chose the name because he had read about Kosmodemyanskaya while studying at Yangon University and saw several parallels between the Karen resistance against the Burmese government and the Soviet resistance against the Nazis in Europe.

Post-Soviet research and controversy

1990s media controversy

Kosmodemyanskaya's life became a subject of media controversy during the 1990s. In September 1991, an article by Aleksandr Zhovtis was published in the weekly Russian magazine Argumenty i Fakty. The article alleged that there were no German troops in the village of Petrishchevo, in spite of several photos of her being hanged by German soldiers. Zhovtis blamed Stalin's scorched earth policy for the "unnecessary" death of the young woman. Ten years later, Kozhemyaka wrote another article "Zoya is executed yet again", in which he lamented some "absurd material" on Internet discussion forums, which alleged that Zoya had hurt Russian peasants rather than German troops, that she had schizophrenia, and that she was a fanatical Stalinist.

In 1997, the newspaper Glasnost published the previously unknown protocols of the official commission of residents of Petrishchevo village and Gribtsovsky selsoviet from January 25, 1942 (two months after Zoya's execution). The protocols stated that Kosmodemyanskaya was caught while trying to destroy a stable containing more than 300 German horses. They also described her torture and execution.

See also

  • List of female Heroes of the Soviet Union

References

  • Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, Story of Zoya and Shura, Foreign Languages Publishing House: Moscow, 1953 ("Shura" is a nickname for "Alexander", the author is Zoya's mother).
  • Martyrdom of village priest Pyotr Kosmodemyansky (in Russian)
  • Zoya's Story, a short biography, some tributes and excerpts from the book "Story of Zoya and Shura"
  • Photo of dead Zoya
  • Photos of Zoya's execution
  • Biography (in Russian), on the website dedicated to the Heroes of the Soviet Union/Russia
  • Short Biographical Article (in English) , from Northstar Compass
  • Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya From The Voice of Russia