Levchenko, Irina Nikolaevna

Early years

Born March 15, 1924 in the village of Kadievka (now the city ​​of Stakhanov ) of the Lugansk region of Ukraine , in the family of an employee ^[1] .

She graduated from the 9th grade of the Artyomovsk school ^[1] . Schoolgirl Irina Levchenko was able to shoot with a rifle and provide first aid to the wounded ^[2] . Moved to Moscow ^[3] .

During the Great Patriotic War

In the Red Army since 1941, a participant in the Great Patriotic War since June 1941 ^[1] . In the early days of the war, she came to the regional department of the Red Cross, where she was appointed commander of the department of the Sandruzhina and determined the observation post (public baths). However, this work seemed ordinary to the girl, as she intended to go to the front to rescue the wounded ^[3] .

In July 1941, units and formations of the people's militia were created in Moscow. The rear units of the army needed a large number of sandwiches, signalmen and other specialists ^[3] . In the summer of 1941, she arrived at the headquarters of the 28th Army in the cities of Kirov, Smolensk Region , among the sand -soldiers . She served in the operational dressing platoon, then as a medical instructor in the company of the 744th Infantry Regiment of the 149th Infantry Division of the 61st Army of the Bryansk Front ) ^[1] .

German troops approached Smolensk and Roslavl , where I.N. Levchenko was sent. In a letter to her mother, Irina Levchenko reports on her first baptism of fire: ^[3] “Dear, beloved mother! We were sent to the division medical center. Rather, this is not a point, but a whole battalion. I am in the surgical dressing platoon. Tonight I received a baptism of fire. They brought some wounded and ordered me to bandage them ... Frankly, the appearance of large wounds - not scratches, like at home, is very scary. ”

When the division was surrounded, Irina Levchenko evacuated 168 wounded in cars. She left the encirclement in the vicinity of the village of Voroshilovsky ^[3] .

By May 1942, the 18-year-old medical officer I.N. Levchenko had taken out of the battlefield and provided first aid to 168 wounded ^[1] .

In the battles for Tulumchak and Karpech ( Kerch Peninsula , Crimea ) I.N. Levchenko provided medical assistance to 30 wounded and personally evacuated 28 people with weapons from the battlefield, ^[3] while capturing one prisoner and a Romanian machine gun, delivering them to a unit ^{[ 2]} . The former commander of a separate tank battalion T. Turkatov in his memoirs talks about the heroism of the medical officer I.N. Levchenko: ^{[3] [4]}

In 1942, our troops fought on the Kerch Peninsula . The tanks came out of the shelter and went on the attack in a deployed front. Behind one of our tanks, behind the covers of his armor, a medical instructor ran with a medical bag ... The girl darted to the burning tank. She quickly opened the hatch and began to pull the wounded out of the car ... Another tank caught fire. His crew got out of the car and lay in the nearest funnel. Irina ran to the tankers, bandaged their wounds.

Moreover, she was seriously injured and evacuated to the hospital, where she avoided the amputation of her right arm ^[2] . After recovery, the medical commission decided to remove I.N. Levchenko from military records. However, Irina decided to connect her fate with the tank units . After repeated requests, I met with the commander of the armored and mechanized forces of the Red Army, Lieutenant General of the tank forces Fedorenko ^[2] and was enrolled as a cadet in the Stalingrad Military Tank School evacuated to the city of Kurgan ^[3] .

In 1943 she graduated from the crash course of the Stalingrad Tank School . Two days after its completion was adopted by the CPSU (b) (February 1943) ^{[2] [1]} . Until the victorious end of the war, she served as a communications officer of the 41st Guards Tank Brigade of the 7th Mechanized Corps , operating on the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts, and commanded a group of light tanks T-60 ^[1] .

The crew of her tank participated in the assault on Smolensk , where in 1941 she took out the wounded, freed the Carpathians , Romania , Bulgaria , Hungary . Irina Levchenko ended the war near Berlin ^[2] .

For accomplished feats during the Great Patriotic War I.N. Levchenko was awarded three orders of the Red Star and 10 medals ^[3] . The Minister of Defense of the Bulgarian People’s Republic, General Dobri Dzhurov awarded I. N. Levchenko with registered weapons ^[2] .

Post-war years

In 1952, I.N. Levchenko graduated from the R. Y. Malinovsky Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces . She worked for some time, but the knowledge of the engineer I.N. Levchenko seemed insufficient. Therefore, she entered the MV Frunze Academy at the Faculty of History, which she graduated in 1955. Since 1958 - Guard Lieutenant Colonel Reserve ^[1] .

During the years of study with I.N. Levchenko, a tendency toward literary activity manifested itself more and more. In 1952, in the magazine “Banner” No. 11-12, her debut work “The Tale of the War Years” was published, which was published eight times in a separate edition with a half-million circulation in the period from 1952 to 1965 ^[3] .

Her works reveal the fate of women in the war: “The daughter of the commander” (1955), “Immortality” (1960), “Happy” (1964, about myself), “Mistress of the tank” (1964, about the driver T-34 M. V. Oktyabrskaya ). The heroes of I. N. Levchenko are fearless, courageous people who go on a feat in the name of the Motherland. Having personal experience of hard work as a military doctor, in her articles and essays she spoke with great warmth of heart about people in white coats. In her opinion, “nurses, medical officers ... how much their weak and strong hands did together, how little has been said so far about them - real proud and kind words.” ^{[3] [5]}

In the late 1950s, she went to Germany , where she met with former resistance fighters, former prisoners of concentration camps, and young Germans - builders of socialism . The result of this trip was the book "People of the New Germany" (1959) ^[2] .

Along with the military theme, in her works there was also a place for the heroes of peaceful labor: “In the near train” (1958, about Soviet doctors), “Without a return ticket” (1962, about virgin lands Komsomol members ), “For apple trees to bloom” (1963), “People, assault, victory ...” (1964, about the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric station ), “And no other way ...” (1967, about Igarka ) ^[3] . Member of the Union of Writers of the USSR ^[1] .

In 1961, the International Committee of the Red Cross awarded her the Florence Nightingale Medal , which is awarded to nurses for their exceptional dedication and courage in assisting the wounded and sick, both in wartime and in peacetime. Together with her, the International Committee of the Red Cross awarded this honorary award to the participant of the Great Patriotic War, surgical sister, and the chairman of the primary organization of the Red Cross at the Leningrad Skorohod factory LF Savchenko ^[1] .

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 6, 1965, for the “exemplary execution of the combat missions of the command and the courage and courage shown” to the guard, Lieutenant Colonel of the reserve tank troops Levchenko Irina Nikolaevna was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 10677) ^[1] .

Actively worked in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans , often made presentations, traveled abroad. In 1967, she visited Vietnam , where she visited those areas of the country where the war was . I drove along the front roads of Vietnam, having been with partisans, scouts and on batteries. Vietnamese friends gave her a commemorative ring made from the 900th downed American plane ^[3] . It has an inscription in Russian and Vietnamese: ^[2] “To my sister Irina Levchenko on her birthday.” The result of her trip to Vietnam was a collection of short stories “Daughters of Vietnam”. From a letter from Nguyen Dinh Thi (Vietnam): “At one time, you, the daughter of the Soviet country, put on a uniform and took up arms to beat the fascists ... You have gone all the way through the difficult path of war, full of suffering, sacrifice and heroism unprecedented in history ... You again came to the front, where there is a decisive battle between man, barbarism and slavery. In rain and heat ... you walked through trenches and villages, along marinas and crossings glowing under enemy fire ... And wherever you have been, people remember your name. ” ^[3]

She lived in Moscow , where she died on January 18, 1973 . She was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery (plot number 4) ^[1] .

• The story of the war years. // The Banner magazine . - 1952. - No. 11-12.
• The daughter of the commander: stories. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1955 .-- 48 p.
• In the near train. - M .: Soviet Russia, 1958. - 38 p.
• People of the new Germany: notes of a Soviet writer. - M .: Politizdat, 1959. - 140 p.
• Immortality, 1960.
• No return ticket, 1962.
• To apple blossoms. - M .: Military Publishing, 1963 .-- 179 p.
• Happy. - M .: Soviet Russia, 1964 .-- 92 p.
• Mistress of the tank . - M .: Politizdat, 1964.
• People, assault, victory: [heroic story about the builders of the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric station]. - Krasnoyarsk: Krasnoyarsk book publishing house, 1964. - 108 p.
• And nothing else ... - M .: Young Guard, 1967. - 402 p.
• Daughters of Vietnam. - M .: Military Publishing, 1967 .-- 46 p.
• Drops of a military thunderstorm. - M .: Soviet Russia, 1973
• The story of the war years. - M .: Soviet Russia, 1983.- 384 p. - (Feat). Circulation of 100,000 copies.

Soviet state awards and titles ^[1] :

• Hero of the Soviet Union (May 6, 1965, Gold Star medal No. 10677);
• Order of Lenin (May 6, 1965);
• three orders of the Red Star (including September 7, 1944; May 20, 1945);
• medals.

Foreign awards ^[3] :

• medal “Fighter against fascism” ;
• medal "20 years of the Bulgarian National Army" ;
• award weapon (from the Minister of Defense of the Bulgarian People’s Republic, General Dobri Dzhurov ) ^[2] .

Other awards ^[1] :

• Florence Nightingale Medal (1961).

She was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, plot No. 4, where a monument was erected to her ^[1] .

Honorary citizen of the city of Artyomovsk, Lugansk region of Ukraine. Her name was assigned to one of the quarters of the city of Lugansk . On the building of school number 3 of the city of Artyomovsk, where studied I.N. Levchenko, a memorial plaque. A commemorative sign with the inscription: “Hero of the Soviet Union, lieutenant colonel, writer Levchenko Irina Nikolaevna (1924-1973) lived here” is installed on one of the facades of the “ House on the Embankment ” in Moscow ^[1] .

In 1975, a street in Moscow was named after her. In 1979, the USSR Post envelope was issued (artist P. Bendel, Lapkin catalog number 79-452 (13702)) ^[1] .

In the city of Almaznaya (Lugansk People's Republic) named street them. Irina Levchenko, on which the railway station of Stakhanov station is located

Her father, Nikolai Ivanovich Levchenko , was the head of the Donugol , then headed the Donetsk and Lenin railways, was deputy commissar of railways , and was repressed ^[1] . Irina’s grandfather, Sergeyev Saraev, was killed by the tsarist police during a night raid. Grandmother Maria Sergeevna Saraeva-Zubkova - a participant in the civil war , cavalier of two orders of the Red Banner , brigade commissar of the Chongar cavalry division of the First Horse Army ^[2] .

There is a daughter Olga ^[2] . In Vietnam, he adopted a young man, Chan Zyong, whose mother was killed at the age of nine, and at the age of 16 he joined the partisans and became one of the best scouts of the Liberation Army ^[2] .

Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces P. A. Rotmistrov about his first meeting with I. N. Levchenko ^[2] :

Here is how it was. Once the adjutant reports: "Senior Lieutenant Levchenko asks to accept on a personal matter." I remember that I was preparing for an urgent meeting then and was busy. However, Levchenko was so persistent that I was even curious. Let me, I think, still look at this eagle, which is raging in my reception room.

The door opened, and a girl in officer uniforms was speaking to me clearly, in a statutory manner. Somehow it’s even unusual to pronounce this word - tan-cist-ka. It turned out that they were going to expel her from the Armored Academy precisely because she was a girl! Well what to do here!

I listened, listened, and marveled at her extraordinary perseverance. Imagine how stubbornly she had to achieve her goal: in order to get into the academy at the age of twenty, she had to graduate from a tank officer school at eighteen to nineteen. Unbelievable!

From reader reviews of the debut book "The Tale of the War Years" ^[2] :

I read this book and worry with her, I cherish her memories. Everything happens in reality. So can write a person who has lived life to the end.

I. N. Levchenko about the Vietnam War ^[2] :

Day and night, everything that I saw in you haunts me: the wistful eyes of children fixed on the beautiful Vietnamese sky, crossed out by black crosses of American bombers, disturbing nights, the roar of bombs and the glimmering conflagration of a string of people deprived of shelter, wandering from kids in their arms.

• Levchenko Irina Nikolaevna // Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1987.- T. 1 / Abaev - Lyubichev /. - S. 859. - 911 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN comp., Reg. RCP No. 87-95382.
• Lunin I.F. Levchenko Irina Nikolaevna / Brief literary encyclopedia: In 9 vols. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1962-1978.
• Soviet woman - defender of the motherland. Ivanovo Regional State Publishing House. Ivanovo, 1942 .-- S. 20.
• Lerner L. Soldiers are not born // Heroes. Vol. I. (Essays on Women - Heroes of the Soviet Union) / Editor-compiler L.F. Toropov. - M .: Politizdat, 1969 .-- 447 p.
• Kuzmin M.K. Levchenko Irina Nikolaevna // Medics - Heroes of the Soviet Union / Editor T.V. Kalyu. - 2nd ed .. - M .: Medicine, 1970. - S. 209-212. - 223 p. - 16,000 copies.
• Bulkin S.P. Heroes of the Fatherland. - 2nd ed. - Donetsk: Donbass, 1977.
• Герои огненных лет. Книга 6. — М. : Московский рабочий, 1983
• Подвиги, ставшие легендой. — Донецк: Донбас, 1985

• Левченко, Ирина Николаевна (рус.) . Site " Heroes of the country ".
• Е. Браташ. Женщина-солдат. Советская Луганщина № 9 (493).
• Левченко Ирина Николаевна фильм из цикла «Герои Победы». ООО «Русский исторический канал», 2010.