The first woman Hero of the Soviet Union, the 18-year-old partisan who cried 'Stalin will come!' from the gallows
With the noose around her neck, Zoya called out: 'Farewell, comrades! Fight, do not be afraid! Stalin is with us! Stalin will come!'
One of the most iconic war heroes of the Soviet Union. In October 1941, while still a high-school student, she volunteered for the front and was assigned to Unit 9903, a reconnaissance and sabotage detachment of the Western Front staff, where she mined roads and cut German communication lines. On 27 November she set fire to three houses used by German troops in Petrishchevo; captured the next day, she endured brutal torture and gave up no information, and was hanged on 29 November 1941. After Pravda journalist Pyotr Lidov uncovered her story, Stalin called her 'the people's heroine,' and in February 1942 she became the first woman awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1938Joined the Komsomol
- 1941.10Volunteered for the front; assigned to reconnaissance-sabotage Unit 9903, Western Front staff
- 1941.11.4–17Mined roads and cut communication lines in the Volokolamsk sector
- 1941.11.27Set fire to three houses used by German troops in Petrishchevo
- 1941.11.28–29Captured, tortured, and hanged — gave her name only as 'Tanya' and revealed nothing
- 1942.2.16Awarded Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously — the first woman so honoured
Related historical events
Partisan sabotage and the Petrishchevo mission
On 31 October 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya volunteered in Moscow and joined Unit 9903, a reconnaissance and sabotage formation attached to the Western Front staff. After an initial mission near Volokolamsk on 4 November, Stavka Order No. 428 of 17 November directed the destruction and burning of settlements in areas 40–60 kilometres behind German lines. Around 18 November, commanders Pavel Provorov and Boris Krainov were ordered to burn ten villages, including Petrishchevo, within five to seven days. Their two groups of roughly ten fighters each encountered an ambush near Golovkovo and scattered; some members were killed or captured.
Before dawn on 27 November, Kosmodemyanskaya, Krainov and Vasily Klubkov set fire to three houses in Petrishchevo. Their assigned objective was not to burn the entire village. Unable to rendezvous with her comrades, she returned alone to attempt further arson and was captured by German troops on the evening of 28 November after Semyon Sviridov alerted them. The January 1942 inquiry that gathered villagers' testimony and later accounts differ on details of her capture; historians have also disputed whether German troops were permanently stationed there and what military use the burned houses served. Villagers' accounts nevertheless describe German troops, either quartered or passing through, using village houses for lodging. Captured and tortured, she gave up neither her comrades nor information about the mission, and was publicly hanged on 29 November.