Olga Kuzminichna Kovaleva ( July 1, 1899 , the village of Aleksandrovskaya (now Suvodskaya) - August 25, 1942 , Stalingrad ) - one of the first women tractor drivers, the first woman steel maker, member of the Battle of Stalingrad . Her name is immortalized on a separate memorial plate on the Great Mass grave of the memorial complex “To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad” .
Olga Kuzminichna Kovaleva | |||
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Date of Birth | July 1, 1899 | ||
Place of Birth | Aleksandrovskaya village, Tsaritsyno district , Saratov province | ||
Date of death | August 25, 1942 (43 years) | ||
Place of death | Stalingrad , USSR | ||
Affiliation | the USSR | ||
Type of army | infantry | ||
Years of service | 1942 | ||
Rank | Militia fighter | ||
Part | Fighter battalion of the factory Red October | ||
Battles / Wars | The Great Patriotic War Battle of stalingrad | ||
Awards and prizes | |||
Content
Youth
Olga Kuzminichna Kovaleva was born in 1899 in the village of Aleksandrovskaya (now Suvodskaya ) of Tsaritsyn district of the Saratov province in a large family of a poor peasant. Since childhood, Olga batrachila, at the age of 12, began working as a servant with a priest, and later worked in Dubovka as a butter-broom and as a teacher in an orphanage [1] . Shortly after the revolution , Olga's father, Kuzma Alekseevich Kovalev, created a commune. In 1921, Olga Kuzminichna became the first woman of the village, who joined the party [2] [3] . One day, fulfilling the instructions of the commune to bring salt from Lake Elton , she collapsed under the ice, but was able to save herself and deliver salt to the village, but fell ill with pneumonia [3] .
In Stalingrad
In the fall of 1927, Olga Kuzminichna left for Stalingrad [3] . At this time, Stalingrad was experiencing a period of rapid economic growth - industrial enterprises were built and modernized in it, which constituted the economic basis of the city for many decades. Olga Kuzminichna began working as a mason at the Krasny Oktyabr factory, and then headed a team of masons. Two years later, the factory party organization sent Olga Kuzminichna to Srednyaya Akhtuba to work on a collective farm. Based on the results of work on the collective farm, she was awarded a Certificate of Merit. In 1933, Olga Kovaleva was elected the first party conference of the Stalingrad Territory as a member of the party’s regional committee [4] . In 1934-1937, Olga Kuzminichna worked as an assistant to the head of the political department of the Kruglovskaya MTS . In the spring of 1935, the Kruglovskaya MTS began to use tractors in the sowing season [5] .
In 1939, with the support of the party organization of the plant, Olga Kuzminichna began to work as a steelworker’s assistant [3] . In a statement, she simply wrote: "I want to become a steelworker." In 1940, she became one of the first women steelworkers to independently conduct swimming trunks in the open-hearth workshop (12th open-hearth furnace). This was an incredible success, given that usually the path from the henchmen to the steelworkers took many years, and especially since Olga Kuzminichna did not have a special education [3] .
War
Since the beginning of World War II, shifts at the plant began to last for 12 hours, but Olga Kuzminichna and her steelworkers implemented the main factory slogan of the time: “Give me the metal!”. Olga Kovaleva was among the participants in the women's congress held in early 1942, at which she signed the book “Women of Coventry from Women of Stalingrad”. The book was presented on January 20, 1943 to the mayor of Coventry, Emily Smith, the wife of the Soviet ambassador to Britain, Mrs. Maiskaya [6] . To this day, Olga Kuzminichna Kovaleva has already died.
On August 23, 1942, the forces of the 4th Air Fleet carried out the most destructive bombing of the city during which more than 90 thousand people died and destroyed more than half of the housing stock of the pre-war Stalingrad. One of the important goals was the factory "Red October" and the factory village. As a result of the bombing, the open-hearth furnaces were disabled. At the same time, the 6th German army reached the Volga River in the area of the Mokray Mechetka and Sukhaya Mechetka rivers, in close proximity to the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. On alert, the soldiers of the factory detachment of the working militia were assembled to advance to the breakthrough area and, together with detachments of other factories and parts of the Red Army, repulse the enemy's attack. Olga Kuzminichna also entered the number of fighters of the detachment, despite the resistance of the detachment command to lead a woman into battle. However, Olga Kuzminichna insisted and became the only woman in the fighter squad of the Krasny Oktyabr factory. At the same time, she said: “When I started to cook, some people told me that this is not a woman’s business, nothing will come of it. But it turned out. How many years already working together. We worked together, so we will fight together. ” The fighter battalion was led by the worker G. P. Pozdnyshev [7] .
Olga Kovaleva died during the attack on the Meliorative farm [8] , where German machine gunners were entrenched. The commissar of the fighter battalion of the factory "Red October" K. M. Sazykin remembered the circumstances of the death of Olga Kuzminichna Kovaleva in her memoirs:
In the midst of the battle, something happened to the machine gun: either the tape stuck, or the calculation hesitated. The steelworker Kovaleva rushed to the machine gunners, and soon the machine gun spoke again. Hotter and hotter fight. Death wrests comrades from our ranks. And then I saw Olga Kovaleva. She lay prone, arms outstretched, a kerchief flew off her head, the wind ruffled her hair, a rifle at her right arm, a grenade dropped at her left, a bloodied face ... It was obvious that she was killed when she ran forward to the attack. The Germans ran across the road to the farm at this time, a few tens of meters from me. I only had time to take Olga’s rifle and grenade in order to preserve the eternal memory of this courageous Woman, who had not ceded her right to defend her hometown.
- K. M. Sazykin [9]
Here is what A.S. Chuyanov, the first secretary of the Stalingrad regional committee and city committee of the CPSU (b) wrote about this episode of the defense of Stalingrad:
Since the outbreak of fighting on the outskirts of the Tractor Plant, the Stalingraders have lost many militia fighters and fighter battalions. The steelmakers of the Krasny Oktyabr factory suffered a heavy loss: Olga Kovaleva died. She fought with the Nazi tanks, not knowing fear. She died in the evening of August 25 at the turn of the defense, through which the Nazi tanks tried to break through. True to the glorious traditions of the heroic defense of the red Tsaritsyn, STZ workers blocked the path of the enemy.
- A. S. Chuyanov [10]
Awards
Olga Kuzminichna Kovaleva posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin [11] and the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" [11] .
Memory
The name of Olga Kuzminichna Kovaleva is immortalized on one of the 37 memorial plates of the Great mass grave of the memorial complex “To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad” on Mamayev Kurgan .
In the Krasnooktyabrsky district of Volgograd there is Olga Kovaleva street [12] [13] .
In the square on the factory square, next to the passageways of the Krasny Oktyabr factory, is the grave of Olga Kuzminichna [14] . The monument on the grave was built in 1968 according to the project of the artist of the factory “Red October” N. T. Nozhkin [15] , architects M. D. Golubin and A. N. Barinov. In 1982, the granite framing of the monument was made. The monument is made of granite and stainless steel, the bas-relief of Olga Kuzminichna Kovaleva is made of bronze. The following text is present on the grave: “Olga Kovaleva, the first female steelmaker, fighter of the fighter battalion, who heroically died during the Battle of Stalingrad. 1900-1942 ” [16] .
A memorial plaque was installed on one of the workshops of the Red October factory. The board, cast by the metallurgists of the plant, was opened on February 2, 1968, it was written on it: “Here Olga Kovalyova, who was heroically killed while defending her hometown on August 25, 1942, worked as a steel worker at furnace No. 12 [15] .
The monument on the grave of Olga Kuzminichna and the memorial plaque [17] are among the objects of cultural heritage of the regional significance of the city of Volgograd [18] .
In 1962, the Volgograd State Museum of Defense issued a brochure entitled “Olga Kovaleva [Steelmaker of the Red October Plant Perished in Battles for Stalingrad]”, and in 1975 the documentary story by A. V. Pichugin “Olga Kovaleva” was published in Volgograd.
Notes
- ↑ Pavlov V.V. A word about Olga Stalingrad // Stalingrad: myths and reality. - M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2003 .-- S. 211-214. - 320 p. - (Archive). - ISBN 5-7654-2667-0 .
- ↑ Ostavnova V.V. Monument of history - the grave of Olga Kovaleva, who died during the defense of Stalingrad in 1942 . Monuments and memorable places of the Krasnooktyabrsky district of the city of Volgograd . Peaceful. Date of treatment March 27, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 This is all that will remain after me, 2009 .
- ↑ Nina Kondakova (Lymar). Olga Kovaleva . The role of women in World War II . Women and information. Date of treatment March 13, 2015.
- ↑ Stas Murashkin. History . Kruglovka.ru. Date of treatment March 25, 2015.
- ↑ A message from Stalingrad delivered to Coventry (1943) . Date of treatment March 24, 2015.
- ↑ Vodolagin M.A. The enemy is torn to the Volga // At the walls of Stalingrad . - M .: Gospolitizdat, 1958. - 100,000 copies.
- ↑ At the walls of Stalingrad, 1958 .
- ↑ Woman, steel maker, warrior . Oboznik.ru Date of treatment March 13, 2015.
- ↑ A. Chuyanov. Communists of Stalingrad . Stalingrad . Books on the War 41 years. Date of treatment March 13, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 Battle of Stalingrad: Encyclopedia, 2012 , p. 304.
- ↑ Resolution of 10 October 2011 No. 3060 “On approval of the citywide list of the names of the elements of the street-road network and other territories of the citizens of the urban district of the city-hero Volgograd” . Administration of Volgograd (Volgograd region) (October 10, 2011). Date of treatment February 19, 2015.
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ 1 2 Zotkina V. Yu. Chronicle of dates and events of Volgograd for 2013 . Centralized system of city libraries of Volgograd. Date of treatment March 13, 2015.
- ↑ The grave of Olga Kovaleva . History of Volgograd. Date of treatment March 13, 2015.
- ↑ There is information that there is no tablet now (see Olesya Khodunova. Unconsciousness. In the year of the 425th anniversary, monuments were closed in Volgograd with monuments AIF-Volgograd (August 27, 2014). The appeal date is March 13, 2015. )
- ↑ Objects of cultural heritage of regional significance located on the territory of the city of Volgograd . Culture Committee of the Volgograd region. Date of treatment March 13, 2015.
Literature
- Battle of Stalingrad. July 1942 - February 1943: Encyclopedia / ed. M.M. Zagorulko . - 5th ed., Rev. and add. - Volgograd: Publisher, 2012 .-- S. 304. - 800 p.
- Registered in Volgograd forever (collection). - Volgograd: Nizhne-Volzhsky Prince. Publishing House, 1975 .-- 176 p. - 30 000 copies
- Bogomolov V. M. For the defense of Stalingrad . - M .: Baby, 1976. - p. 19. - 34 p. - (Grandfather's medals).
- Pichugin A.V. Olga Kovaleva. Documentary story. - Volgograd: Nizhne-Volzhsky Prince. Publishing House, 1975 .-- 78 p. - (The life of your countrymen).
- Volgograd State Museum of Defense. Olga Kovaleva (Steelmaker of the factory "Red October", who died in the battles for Stalingrad). - Volgograd: Prince. Publishing House, 1962. - 10 p. - 3000 copies
Links
- Vazhenina O. This is all that will remain after me // Peasant life: newspaper. - 2009. - No. 8-14 of May 2009 .