BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 14 June 1945, Page 5

BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE

RUSSIAN HEROINE OF 18 One of the most revered and heroic figures of this war is the Russian heroine Zoya, an 18-year-year-old high school girl who, before her murder by the Germans, resided at a small village called Petrishtshevo, near Moscow. The hanging of this tall, dark-haired, pretty Zoya fanned an unparalleled storm of national emotion and blaze of Russian wrath. Zoya joined the Russian guerillas under the rame of Tanya. Her real name was not even divulged to the guerillas as she was in deadly peril that, if caught by the Germans, her own family might suffer reprisal and vengeance from the wrath of the invading tyrants. On learning that her beloved village had been captured by the Germans. Zoya said she would go there and disturb the “rest” of the Germans. Her parting words were: "I may perish, but I’ll take the lives of ten Germans.” Wnile in the act of setting fire to a stable containing 200 enemy horses, she was captured. She suffered unbridled vengeance and torture and was cut with 10 strokes of a whip on two occasions. leaving her tender flesh broken and bleeding. She was then almost stripped naked and her feet and hands became numbed with the intense cold. Still she would not give her comrades away. On being asked if she set houses on fire, Zoya bravely replied “Yes,'’ and wh°n told 20 horses, three houses and one German had been burned, said: ' What a pity.” She was sentenced to death and the villagers of beloved Petrishtshevo were ordered to witness her execution by hanging next day. Around her neck she bore the inscription. placed there by the Germans, “Incendiary of homes." Zoya’s words on the scaffold showed her undaunted and proud spirit to the last as she said : "Here comrades! Why do you look so gloofhy? Be brave! Fight on! Kill Germans! Burn them! Poison them!’ As the noose tightened, she loosened it a little with her hands and before choking to death, said: “Farewell people! Fight on! Stalin is with us!” So ended the brief, but immortalised life of the bravest of the brave. Zoya was given martyrdom by the Russians, and a special Post Office postcard was issued in Russia bearing her portrait and showing this heroine, roughly held by the capturing Germans nd surrounded by enraged Nazis with fixed bayonets. This postcard was exhibited at the postage stamp exhibition recently in Nelson.

Zoya's portrait has been painted by the best Russian artists. Volumes and novels have been written of her inspiring and self-sacrificing life, plays have been produced, operas have been written, sculptors have made images of her and Hollywood is making a film immortalising further this wonderful life.