The execution of Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya & Vera Voloshina by hanging 1923
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| Her body was just left in the snow |
The execution of Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya & Vera Voloshina by hanging 1923
Zoya Kosmodemjanskaja was another Russian partisan. She was born on the 14th of September 1923 and belonged to the Diversionsabteilung no. 9903 of the Soviet secret police (NKVD), which ran some 400 agents.
On the night of the 27th of November 1941, Zoya, together with two comrades, set fire to a building in the village of Petrischtschewo near Moscow. German soldiers quickly caught one of them - Wassilij Klubkow.
Under interrogation he betrayed Zoya. She was arrested and tortured before being sentenced to hang.
Eighteen year old Zoya was executed near Moscow, on the 29th of November 1941. Round her neck was hung a sign describing the reason for her execution.
Just before she was pushed off the stack of boxes they had placed under the simple gallows, she told the soldiers, "You can’t hang all 190 million of us." Her partly clothed body was left to rot in the snow.
During Zoya's interrogation, she used the name of Tanya (a popular Russian first name) as an alias and her real name was only discovered much later. Even in the newspaper article, where her execution was described in full detail, the author calls her Tanya.
Zoya adopted this name from a woman called Tanya (last name unknown) who was one of the heroes of Civil War in Russia (1918-1922) and had been hanged by the White Guards.
Zoya was posthumously decorated a Hero of the Soviet Union as was her brother, Shura, for his service in the Red Army tank corps.
Vera Voloshina served in the same partisan group as Zoya and was described as a pretty 23 year old blonde. She had been wounded in the shoulder during a gun fight with German soldiers and captured.
After torture, Vera Voloshina was also publicly hanged, later the same day.
Zoe's friend shared her fate
On October 31, 1941, the Komsomol member Kosmodemyanskaya enrolled as a volunteer in a sabotage school, becoming a fighter in a reconnaissance and sabotage unit, which officially bore the name of the "partisan unit 9903 of the headquarters of the Western Front."
Schooling lasts only three days due to the extremely difficult situation at the front. At the same time, future saboteurs are directly told that their mission is as dangerous as possible. Those who are not ready for the mortal risk are encouraged to leave. Zoya stays behind.
The group, which included Kosmodemyanskaya, suffered heavy losses during operations behind enemy lines. Two groups crossed the front line, which then had to split up. However, the combined detachment came under fire, as a result of which the remaining two groups turned out to be mixed in composition.
Zoe's friend Vera Voloshin was captured by the Germans. She died on the same day as Zoya, on November 29, 1941 - the Germans hanged her at the Golovkovo state farm.
The details of Vera Voloshina's death became known many years after the war. Here is the testimony of a witness to her execution: “ She lies, poor thing, in only her underwear, and even then it is torn and covered in blood. Two Germans, fat, with black crosses on their sleeves, climbed into the car, wanted to help her up. But the girl pushed the Germans away and, clutching the cockpit with one hand, got up. Her second arm was apparently broken - it hung like a whip. And then she started talking. At first she said something, you see, in German, and then she became our way.
- I, - he says, - am not afraid of death. My comrades will avenge me. Ours will win anyway. You will see!
And the girl began to sing. And do you know which song? The one that every time they sing at meetings and play on the radio in the morning and late at night.
- The International?
- Yes, this very song. And the Germans stand and listen in silence. The officer who commanded the execution shouted something to the soldiers. They threw a noose around the girl's neck and jumped off the car.
The officer ran up to the driver and gave the command to move. And he sits, all white, apparently not used to hanging people yet. The officer drew his revolver and shouts something to the driver in his own way.
Apparently, he swore very much. He seemed to wake up, and the car started to move. The girl still managed to shout, so loudly that my blood froze in my veins: “Farewell, comrades!”. When I opened my eyes, I saw that it was already hanging».
The order Patriotic War I degree was awarded to the relatives of Vera Voloshina in 1966. And in 1994 she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
Perhaps Dr. Bilzho never heard of Vera Voloshina, and therefore the girl avoided a posthumous diagnosis.
Let's go back to Zoya. She was captured on November 28, 1941 while trying to set fire to a barn in the village of Petrishchevo. It must be said clearly: the premises that Kosmodemyanskaya set on fire in the village were used by the Nazis stationed in the village. The fighter of the sabotage detachment clearly carried out her task.
Witnesses testified that Zoya was severely tortured, but she did not give out any information to the Nazis, giving only her name - Tanya... It was not by chance that she called herself Tatyana - that was the name of the heroine of the Civil War. Tatiana Solomakha, who accepted death at the hands of the White Guards.
Zoe's execution took place on the morning of November 29, 1941. Let's omit the term "podium", used by citizen Bilzho in relation to the box on which an 18-year-old girl stood in the last seconds of her life.
More importantly, the psychiatrist completely distorts the picture of the last minutes of Zoya's life, known not only from photographs taken by the Germans, but also from the testimony of the inhabitants of the village of Petrishchevo, who were herded to execution:
« They led her up to the gallows by the arms. She walked evenly, with her head raised, silently, proudly. They brought me to the gallows. There were many Germans and civilians around the gallows.
They brought me to the gallows, commanded to expand the circle around the gallows and began to photograph her ... She had a bag of bottles with her. She shouted:
“Citizens! You don’t stand, don’t look, but you need to help fight! This death of mine is my achievement. " After that, one officer swung, and the others shouted at her.
Then she said:
“Comrades, the victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it's too late, surrender. " The German officer yelled angrily. But she continued: "Rus!" “The Soviet Union is invincible and will not be defeated,” she said all this at the moment when she was photographed ... Then they set up a box. She, without any command, stood on the box herself.
A German came up and began to put on the noose. At that time she shouted: “No matter how much you hang us, you don’t hang everyone, we are 170 million. But our comrades will avenge you for me. ” She said this already with a noose around her neck.
She wanted to say something else, but at that moment the box was removed from under her feet, and she hung. She took hold of the rope with her hand, but the German struck her hands. After that, everyone went their separate ways.».
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