Soviet women in World War II

Last updated

Female Soviet aviators of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment ("Night Witches"), 1943. Zamestitel' komandira 46-go gvardeiskogo NBAP S. Amosova stavit boevuiu zadachu letchikam.jpg
Female Soviet aviators of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment ("Night Witches"), 1943.
Snipers Natalya Kovshova and Mariya Polivanova became posthumous heroines of the Soviet Union after committing suicide in battle to avoid capture by German forces. Natal'ia Kovshova i Mariia Polivanova (cropped).jpg
Snipers Natalya Kovshova and Mariya Polivanova became posthumous heroines of the Soviet Union after committing suicide in battle to avoid capture by German forces.

Soviet women played an important role in World War II (whose Eastern Front was known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union). While most worked in industry, transport, agriculture and other civilian roles, working double shifts to free up enlisted men to fight and increase military production, a sizable number of women served in the army. The majority were in medical units.

Contents

There were 800,000 women who served in the Soviet Armed Forces during the war, [1] which is roughly 5 percent of total military personnel. [2] The number of women in the Soviet military in 1943 was 348,309, 473,040 in 1944, and then 463,503 in 1945. [3] Of the medical personnel in the Red Army, 40% of paramedics, 43% of surgeons, 46% of doctors, 57% of medical assistants, and 100% of nurses were women. [4] Nearly 200,000 were decorated and 89 of them eventually received the Soviet Union's highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union, among which some served as pilots, snipers, machine gunners, tank crew members and partisans, as well as in auxiliary roles. [5] [6]

At first, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, thousands of women who volunteered were turned away. However, after massive losses in the face of Operation Barbarossa, attitudes had to be changed, ensuring a greater role for women who wanted to fight. In the early stages of the war, the fastest route to advancement in the military for women was service in medical and auxiliary units.

Air crew

For Soviet women aviators, instrumental to this change was Marina Raskova, a famous Soviet aviator, occasionally referred to as the "Russian Amelia Earhart". Raskova became famous as both a pilot and a navigator in the 1930s. She was the first woman to become a navigator in the Red Air Force in 1933. A year later she started teaching at the Zhukovsky Air Academy, also a first for a woman. When World War II broke out, there were numerous women who had training as pilots and many immediately volunteered. While there were no formal restrictions on women serving in combat roles, their applications tended to be blocked, run through red tape, etc. for as long as possible in order to discourage them from seeing combat. Raskova is credited with using her personal connections with Joseph Stalin to convince the military to form three combat regiments for women. Not only would the women be pilots, but the support staff and engineers for these regiments were women. Although all three regiments had been planned to have women exclusively, only the 588th would remain an all-women regiment. The Soviet Union was the first nation to allow women pilots to fly combat missions. [7] These regiments with strength of almost a hundred airwomen, flew a combined total of more than 30,000 combat sorties, produced at least twenty Heroes of the Soviet Union, and included two fighter aces. This military unit was initially called Aviation Group 122 while the three regiments received training. After their training, the three regiments received their formal designations as follows:

The 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment: This unit was the first to take part in combat (April 16, 1942) of the three female regiments and take part in 4,419 combat missions (125 air battles and 38 kills). Lydia Litvyak and Yekaterina Budanova were assigned to the unit before joining the 437th IAP in the fighting over Stalingrad and became the world's only two female fighter aces (with 5 each, although soviet propaganda claims 12 and 11 victories respectively), both flying the Yak-1 fighter.

The 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment: This was the best known of the regiments and was commanded by Yevdokiya Bershanskaya. It originally began service as the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, but was redesignated in February 1943 as recognition for service which would tally almost 24,000 combat missions by the end of the war. Their aircraft was the Polikarpov Po-2, an outdated biplane. The Germans were the ones however who gave them the name that they are most well known as, The Night Witches.

The 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment: Marina Raskova commanded this unit until her death in combat, and then the unit was assigned to Valentin Markov. It started service as the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment until it was given the Guards designation in September 1943.

Infantry

Roza Shanina was a graduate of the Central Women's Sniper Training School credited with 59 confirmed kills. Snaiper Roza Egorovna Shanina.jpg
Roza Shanina was a graduate of the Central Women's Sniper Training School credited with 59 confirmed kills.

The Soviet Union deployed women as snipers and in a variety of infantry roles. Between 1941 and 1945, a total of 2,484 soviet female snipers were functioning in this role, of whom about 500 survived the war. [8] [9] Their combined tally of kill claims is at least 11,000. [10] The most famous snipers during the war included Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Roza Shanina.

Women frequently served as medics and communication personnel, as well – in small numbers – as machine gunners, political officers, tank drivers, and in other parts of the infantry. Manshuk Mametova was a machine gunner from Kazakhstan and was the first Asian woman to receive the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Mariya Oktyabrskaya and Aleksandra Samusenko were tank drivers. Tatyana Kostyrina had over 120 kills and commanded an infantry battalion in 1943 following the death of her commander. [11] Before its dissolution in 1944, the 1st Separate Women's Volunteer Rifle Brigade deployed thousands of women in a variety of combat roles.

Women crewed the majority of the anti-aircraft batteries employed in Stalingrad. Some batteries, including the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, also engaged in ground combat.

In response to the high casualties suffered by male soldiers, Stalin allowed planning which would replace men with women in second lines of defense, such as anti-aircraft guns and medical aid. These provided gateways through which women could gradually become involved in combat. For example, women comprised 43% of physicians, who were sometimes required to carry rifles as they retrieved men from firing zones. Through small opportunities like this, women gradually gained credibility in the military, eventually numbering 500,000 at any given time toward the end of the war.

Partisans

Partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, one of the most celebrated partisans in Soviet media. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, 1941.png
Partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, one of the most celebrated partisans in Soviet media.

Women consistituted significant numbers of the Soviet partisans. One of the most famous was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. In October 1941, still an 18-year-old high school student in Moscow, she volunteered for a partisan unit. At the village of Obukhovo near Naro-Fominsk, Kosmodemyanskaya and other partisans crossed the front line and entered territory occupied by the Germans. She was arrested by the Nazis on a combat assignment near the village of Petrischevo (Moscow Oblast) in late November 1941. Kosmodemyanskaya was savagely tortured and humiliated, but did not give away the names of her comrades or her real name (claiming that it was Tanya). She was hanged on November 29, 1941. It was claimed that before her death Kosmodemyanskaya had made a speech with the closing words, "There are two hundred million of us; you can't hang us all!" Kosmodemyanskaya was the first woman to become Hero of the Soviet Union during the war (February 16, 1942).

The youngest woman to become a Hero of the Soviet Union was also a resistance fighter, Zinaida Portnova. In January 1944, she was captured. She shot one of her captors whilst trying to escape but was caught and killed, just short of her 18th birthday. In 1958, Portnova was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union, there is a monument to her in the city of Minsk and some youth pioneer movement detachments were named after her.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marina Raskova</span> Soviet aviator (1912–1943)

Marina Mikhaylovna Raskova was the first woman in the Soviet Union to achieve the diploma of professional air navigator. Raskova went from a young woman with aspirations of becoming an opera singer to a military instructor to the Soviet's first female navigator. She was the navigator to many record-setting as well as record-breaking flights and the founding and commanding officer of the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment, which was renamed the 125th M.M. Raskova Borisov Guards Dive Bomber Regiment in her honor. Raskova became one of over 800,000 women in the military service, founding three female air regiments, one of which eventually flew over 30,000 sorties in World War II and produced at least 30 Heroes of the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lydia Litvyak</span> Soviet flying ace (1921–1943)

Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak, also known as Lilya, was a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during World War II. Historians estimate for her total victories range from thirteen to fourteen solo victories and four to five shared kills in her 66 combat sorties. In about two years of operations, she was the first female fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft, the first of two female fighter pilots who have earned the title of fighter ace and the holder of the record for the greatest number of kills by a female fighter pilot. She was shot down near Orel during the Battle of Kursk as she attacked a formation of German aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yekaterina Budanova</span> Fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during World War II

Yekaterina Vasilyevna Budanova, nicknamed Katya (Катя), was a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during World War II. Usually credited with five or more aerial victories, along with Lydia Litvyak, she is often considered one of the world's two female fighter aces. She was shot down by either Luftwaffe ace Georg Schwientek of JG 52 or ace Emil Bitsch, of JG 3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Night Witches</span> All-women Soviet aviation unit

"Night Witches" was a World War II German nickname for the all-female military aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, known later as the 46th "Taman" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Red Banner and Order of Suvorov Regiment, of the Soviet Air Forces. Though women were officially barred from combat at the time, Major Marina Raskova used her position and personal contacts with the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to obtain permission to form female combat units. "Combat facilitated and ushered in a reluctant acceptance of women in military, based more upon practicality and necessity than for equality". On October 8, 1941, an order was issued to deploy three women's air-force units, including the 588th Regiment. The regiment, formed by Raskova and led by Major Yevdokiya Bershanskaya, was composed primarily of female volunteers in their late teens and early twenties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valentina Grizodubova</span> Soviet aviator (1909–1993)

Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova was one of the first female pilots in the Soviet Union awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the only female Hero of the Soviet Union to also be awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in the Russian and Soviet military</span>

Women in the Russian and Soviet militaries have played many roles in their country's military history. Women played an important role in world wars in Russia and the Soviet Union, particularly during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariya Dolina</span> Soviet WWII dive bomber pilot and Heroine of the Soviet Union

Mariya Ivanovna Dolina was a Pe-2 pilot and deputy squadron commander in the women's 125th “Marina M. Raskova” Borisov Guards Bomber Regiment. She was active primarily on the 1st Baltic Front during World War II. On 18 August 1945 she was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vera Belik</span> Soviet flight navigator and Air Forces lieutenant (1921–1944)

Vera Lukianovna Belik was a flight navigator and lieutenant in the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment who frequently flew with pilot Tatyana Makarova. They died when their Po-2 was shot down by a German fighter after completing a bombing mission; both were posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 23 February 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irina Sebrova</span>

Irina Fyodorovna Sebrova was a flight commander in the women's 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, also known as the Night Witches, during the Second World War. She was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 23 February 1945 for her first 825 bombing missions. By the end of the war she totaled over 1,000 sorties, more than any other female pilot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadezhda Popova</span> Soviet military aviator (1921–2013)

Nadezhda Vasilyevna Popova was a squadron commander in the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Regiment during the Second World War who achieved significant domestic publicity after completing 18 bombing sorties in one night with navigator Yekaterina Ryabova. Awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 23 February 1945 for completing 737 sorties, she was featured on the cover of Komsomolskaya Pravda and in many other major Soviet publications during the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klavdia Fomicheva</span>

Klavdia Yakovlevna Fomicheva was a squadron commander in the 125th Guards Dive Bomber Regiment during the Second World War who was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 18 August, 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yevdokiya Pasko</span> Soviet aviator and Hero of the Soviet Union (1919–2017)

Yevdokiya Borisovna Pasko was a squadron navigator in the Soviet all-female 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment during World War II. For her successes in the war, she was honored with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 26 October 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olga Sanfirova</span> Soviet military aviator (1917–1944)

Olga Aleksandrovna Sanfirova was a captain and squadron commander in the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment during World War II. She was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 23 February 1945, making her the first Tatar woman awarded the title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larisa Rozanova</span> Soviet pilot (1918–1997)

Larisa Nikolayevna Rozanova was a Soviet pilot and later the senior navigator of the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, nicknamed the "Night Witches" during World War II. For successfully completing 793 sorties, she was declared a Hero of the Soviet Union on 23 February, 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yevdokiya Nosal</span> Soviet pilot (1918–1943)

Yevdokiya Ivanovna Nosal was a junior lieutenant and deputy squadron commander in the 588th Night Bomber Regiment during World War II. She was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 24 May 1943, making her the first woman pilot to be honored with the title during the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoya Parfyonova</span> Soviet military aviator (1920–1993)

Zoya Ivanovna Akimova née Parfyonova was a senior lieutenant and deputy squadron commander in the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment during World War II. For completing 815 sorties during the war, she was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 18 August 1945, making her the only woman from Chuvashia to receive the title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment</span> Military unit

The 125th Borisov Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment named after Marina Raskova was one of the three Soviet women's aviation regiments founded by Marina Raskova at the start of the Second World War. The unit was founded as the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment in the 223rd Bomber Air Division, 2nd Bomber Aviation Corps of the 16th Air Army on 8 October 1941, and later honored with the guards designation, being renamed 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment in September 1943 and reorganized into 4th Guards Bomber Aviation Division, 1st Bomber Aviation Corps, 3rd Air Army, in the 1st Baltic Front. Unlike the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, which used Polikarpov Po-2 utility aircraft, the unit was assigned modern Petlyakov Pe-2 aircraft, which caused some resentment among male units that had older aircraft. Throughout the course of the war, the unit flew 1,134 missions and dropped over 980 tons of bombs on the Axis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonina Zubkova</span> Aviator and Hero of the Soviet Union

Antonina Leontievna Zubkova was a captain and squadron navigator in the women's 125th Guards Dive Bomber Regiment during World War II who was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

The 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment was one of the three Soviet women's aviation regiments founded by Marina Raskova at the start of the Second World War after she convinced Joseph Stalin to allow her to form three all-female aviation regiments. The regiment was originally equipped with Yakovlev Yak-1 aircraft and later acquired Yak-7 and Yak-9 aircraft in 1943. Sorties were conducted to patrol over military installations and carry out defensive missions. While the regiment was intended to be an all-female regiment it became coed with a preponderance of females after regimental commander Tamara Kazarinova transferred to another unit in October 1942 and was replaced by a man, Aleksander Gridnev. The regiment yielded two female flying aces, Lydia Litvyak and Yekaterina Budanova, who were posthumously awarded the titles Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of the Russian Federation respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galina Lomanova</span>

Galina Dmitrievna Tenueva née Lomanova was a flight commander of the 1st squadron in the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment and one of the nine women awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

References

  1. Henry Sakaida (2003). Heroines of the Soviet Union 1941–45. Osprey. ISBN   1-84176-598-8.
  2. The United States Military Academy (2015). West Point History of World War II. Vol. 1. Simon and Schuster. p. 235. ISBN   978-1-4767-8273-7.
  3. Fieseler, Beate; Hampf, M. Michaela; Schwarzkopf, Jutta (2014). "Gendering combat: Military women's status in Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union during the Second World War". Women's Studies International Forum. 47: 116. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2014.06.011.
  4. Markwick, Roger D.; Cardona, Euridice Charon (June 26, 2012). Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 58. ISBN   9780230579521.
  5. Soviet Women Pilots in the Great Patriotic War Archived March 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  6. Women and the Soviet Military Archived November 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Night Witches". BBC World Service. November 2, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  8. "Snaypery VOV" (in Russian). Retrieved September 29, 2007.
  9. Ручко, Александр. Неженское дело? [A Non-Woman Business?] (in Russian). Gun Magazine. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  10. Ручко, Александр. Неженское дело? [A Non-Woman Business?] (in Russian). Gun Magazine. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  11. Sakaida, Henry (April 20, 2012). Heroines of the Soviet Union 1941–45. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1-78096-692-2.

Bibliography