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Figure 7: Zoia Kosmodem’ianskaia.

Anatol’evna Kosmodem’ianskaia (Figure 7). Zoia was 17 years old and living in Moscow with her mother and younger brother when the Germans invaded her country in June 1941. Zoia wanted to contribute to the fight against the Germans and started working at a state farm, but in early November volunteered to join a partisan detachment to the northwest of Moscow. She took part in several missions behind enemy lines. In the evening of November 27 Zoia set fire to a stable housing German horses. Shortly thereafter, she learned that the fire had not fully destroyed the building, so she returned in the evening of the 28th. Zoia burned down two buildings and a car, but was then captured by the Germans. Barely 18 years old, Zoia was tortured relentlessly but refused to share any information with her captors. The next morning she was hanged before the villagers who had been forced to witness the execution. Up until the last moment she bravely addressed the townspeople surrounding the gallows. On February 16, 1942 Zoia became the first woman to be made a HSU during the Great Patriotic War. She soon became a symbol of the heroism of the Soviet people during the war.

Zoia’s younger brother Aleksandr was crushed by his sister’s death and requested to be sent to the front. He was refused due to his age (he was 16 at the time), but in April 1942 his wish was fulfilled. He attended a tank officers’ school and was sent to the front as a heavy tank commander in October 1943. The inscription on his tank read “For Zoia.” His tank was very successful in combat, and in early 1945 Aleksandr was given command of an SU-152 heavy self-propelled howitzer. In April Aleksandr became commander of an SU-152 battery, which reached and captured the Königin Luise Fortress in Königsberg on

April 8. He was killed in action at the age of 19 on April 13, a mere 26 days before the end of the war. He was made a HSU two months later. Aleksandr was buried next to his sister Zoia at the famous Novodevich’e Cemetery in Moscow.

Although posthumous Gold Star Medals normally didn’t leave the state’s vaults (often the recipient wasn’t even assigned a specific Gold Star Medal), on occasion in later years the award was presented to the next of kin. On May 5, 1990, 45 years after World War II had ended, 22 war participants were posthumously granted the HSU title. Among them were the famous submarine captain Aleksandr Marinesko (credited with sinking the large German liners Wilhelm Gustloff and General von Steuben), fighter ace Lidiia Litviak (with 12 solo victories and four shared) the most successful female ace ever), partisan leader Ivan Turkenich, and bomber pilot Ekaterina Zelenko. Zelenko died on September 12, 1941 when she rammed a German Messerschmitt Bf 109 with her Sukhoi Su-2 light bomber. She was the only woman ever to ram an enemy aircraft and supposedly the first woman to engage in air combat during World War II. The Gold Star Medals granted on May 5, 1990 and probably also the ones awarded after this date, were presented to family members of the deceased heroes.

Orders of Lenin

I have seen 14 posthumous Orders of Lenin, even though they were merely awarded on paper. Several of the recipients were initially nominated for the HSU title, after which the recommendation was downgraded to the second highest award, the Order of Lenin. One of them was Major Ivan Timofeevich Savchenko, the commander of the 1696th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment. Born in Ukraine in 1904, he had joined the Red Army in 1926. He was killed in action on July 6, 1943. Two weeks later he was nominated for the HSU title, later downgraded to an Order of Lenin, which was going to be Savchenko’s only award (his award sheet is shown in Figures 1 and 2):

In combat on July 6, 1943 near Ozersky and Kalinino during the massive enemy aerial attacks on the combat formations of the corps’s units, Major Savchenko courageously guided the anti-aircraft fire of the units of the regiment. He personally guided the machine gun fire aimed at the enemy aircraft. As a result of the fighting two enemy Ju-87 aircraft were shot down, while two were damaged.

When a group of enemy Panzer VI tanks with submachine gunners and air and artillery cover attacked

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the firing positions and the regimental command post, comrade Savchenko inspired his soldiers and officers by personal example to accomplish heroic feats. When the Panzer VI tanks forced their way into the defensive formations of the regiment, comrade Savchenko threw an anti-tank grenade toward the closest tank, putting it out of action, and led his men away and boosted the morale. During the fighting the regiment had destroyed two Panzer VI tanks and put one out of action.

Bleeding profusely and almost losing consciousness, the regimental commander didn’t give up the command post, and with his gun in his hands, attempting to fight off the fierce enemy attacks, died a hero’s death.

He deserves the title ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ posthumously.7

Orders of the Patriotic War

Both classes of the Order of the Patriotic War were awarded to all ranks, although there was a slight tendency to give officers a 1st Class order, while non-commissioned officers and men received a 2nd Class order. One of the many posthumous Orders of the Patriotic War, 1st Class was awarded to Guards Lieutenant Fedor Sergeevich Kolganov. Born in 1917, Kolganov joined the Red Army

in August 1938. He served at the front since day one of the war. Initially a rifle platoon leader in a motorized rifle battalion of the 6th Guards Mechanized Brigade, he was given command of a rifle company in late 1943. Kolganov was killed in action on December 16, 1943, at the age of 26. Two months later Kolganov’s battalion commander nominated him for a Red Banner, which was subsequently downgraded to an OPW1:

Commanding the battalion’s 1st Rifle Company, which participated in the offensive to destroy the German bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnepr River, comrade Kolganov gave every soldier and officer a clear task and provided all an advance route. During the attack on the German foremost defense line, he and his company were the first to attack, disregarding their own lives and every moment risking getting killed. Impetuously he and his company hurled themselves into the German trenches. In hand-to-hand combat they killed most of the Germans while the survivors ran away, thus clearing the trenches from German troops. Up to 30 killed Germans were lying in the trenches. During this battle two enemy mounted machine guns and three light machine guns were destroyed by grenades, and a bunker was blocked and subsequently destroyed. During the fighting comrade Kolganov personally destroyed one machine gun nest and killed up to ten hitlerites.

Figure 8: The temporary certificate for Guards Lieutenant Kolganov’s Order of Patriotic War, 1st Class. Copyright scan courtesy of Aleksei Viktorovich Zhivotok.

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Attempting to restore the initial situation, the Germans counterattacked to regain their trenches. Thanks to comrade Kolganov’s persistence and courage, the German counterattack was repulsed. However, Guards Lieutenant Kolganov himself died a hero’s death, refusing to withdraw just one step from the territory conquered from the enemy.

I nominate comrade Kolganov to be awarded the Order

of the Red Banner posthumously.8

Kolganov was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class on March 8, 1944. His wartime records listed his father as his next of kin, so in April 1945 the award was sent to his father. Since an award, even a posthumous one, could never be issued without an award document, Kolganov’s father received a so-called “temporary

Figure 9: The letter accompanying the Order of Patriotic War, 1st Class that was sent to Lieutenant Kolganov’s father. Copyright scan courtesy of Aleksei Viktorovich Zhivotok.