USSR party leader Sergei Mironovich Kirov was born under the name Kostrikov; he died in 1934; this political action opened the way to mass repressions.
In the spring of 1920, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army entered Baku, in addition to establishing Soviet power, member of the Revolutionary Military Council Kirov establishes and personal contacts. The name of his first wife is unknown; oddly enough, no information about her has been preserved in the archives. Or maybe someone tried to prevent it from being preserved?
However, in 1921, her daughter Evgenia Sergeevna Kostrikova was born. Kirov was 35 years old at that time. Soon, according to scant information, the girl’s mother fell ill and died. In 1926, Kirov was elected first secretary of the Leningrad regional party committee. True, he leaves for Leningrad without little Zhenya. Why?
Kirov decides to throw in his lot with an old acquaintance, Maria Lvovna Marcus; they did not register their marriage. But Sergei Mironovich’s second wife categorically refused to accept the girl.
Despite the fact that Kirov never had children in his second marriage, Zhenya Kostrikova faced childhood in a boarding school. And at the age of 13 she was left an orphan. The girl was brought up in an institution labeled “special”. It was created for the children of Comintern employees and children taken from war-torn Spain.
And in 1938, Evgenia Sergeevna easily entered Baumanka. She was not isolated from the children of the party elite. She maintained friendly relations with the children of Mikoyan and Frunze. Her “classmate” was Ruben Ibarruri, the son of the Spanish communist Dolores Ibarruri. With these boys, Zhenya Kostrikova also dreamed of a military career and exploits. But in 1939 the war in Spain ended, and in 1940 the Finnish war ended.
Evgenia did not have time to graduate from college; the Great Patriotic War began. The girl completed a three-month medical course and voluntarily went to the front. She fought bravely as part of a medical platoon of a separate tank battalion.
She took part in battles in the Western direction, near Moscow and Stalingrad, and the Kursk Bulge. Kostrikova was awarded the Order of the Red Star, and after being wounded in the winter of 1943, she did not return to the battalion, but went to the Kazan Tank School.
She left it as the commander of the T-34 tank. Its combat vehicle crossed the Oder and Neisse and took part in the battles for Berlin and Prague. There she completed her combat journey. The girl who had seen and accomplished so much was only 24 years old. Orders and medals adorned her chest. Including the legendary one - “For Courage”. And these were front-line, not anniversary awards.
During the war, young Zhenya met, as it seemed to her, her true love. She even married a staff lieutenant colonel. But he just wanted to take advantage of Zhenya’s connections to improve the regiment’s supplies.
It also turned out that he had a legal wife and children. Evgenia Sergeevna never married again. She settled in Moscow after the war and was a housewife. She lived secluded and lonely. In 1975, only one close friend from the front came to see off Kirov’s daughter and tank captain Kostrikov on her last journey.
Illustrations from the public Internet.
During the Great Patriotic War women not only sat behind the levers of tanks, but also occupied command positions in tank forces. One of the tank officers was Evgenia Kostrikova. Evgenia Sergeevna Kostrikova - Soviet officer, guard captain, participant in the Great Patriotic War. Evgenia Kostrikova was the daughter of a famous Soviet political and statesman Sergei Mironovich Kirov ( real name Kostrikov). During the war, she successively held the positions of military paramedic of the 79th separate tank regiment from the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps, then tank commander, tank platoon and company commander.
Ekaterina Kostrikova was born in 1921 in Vladikavkaz. She is the daughter of S. M. Kirov, who at that time served as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army of the Red Army. This army went to Baku in the spring of 1920 to establish Soviet power there. It was here that Kostrikov met the woman who became his first wife. However, the marriage was short-lived; soon his beloved fell ill and died. In 1926, Sergei Kirov was elected first secretary of the Leningrad Gubernia Committee (regional committee), as well as the city party committee. In this post, he was constantly busy with party and government affairs. His second wife, Maria Lvovna Marcus (1885-1945), did not accept little Zhenya into the family; as a result, the girl was sent to an orphanage. Thus, after the murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934, little Evgenia was left completely alone. She graduated from a boarding school at one of the orphanages " special purpose”, which were established by the USSR government for the “children of war” from Spain. In 1938, she was able to enter the Moscow Higher Technical School. Bauman.
Among the girl’s close friends were representatives of the party elite Timur Frunze, the Mikoyan brothers (who were studying to be pilots during these years), as well as the Spaniard Ruben Ibarruri, who studied at the Moscow Infantry School. Supreme Council RSFSR. In those years, Evgenia Kostrikova, like most of her peers, dreamed of military exploits. Unfortunately for many, fate gave her generation such a chance.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, with unfinished higher education, Evgenia Kostrikova completed a three-month course for nurses and then volunteered to go to the front. The newly minted nurse was sent to a medical platoon of a separate tank battalion, which took part in the battles on the Western Front during the Battle of Moscow. It was near Moscow that the countdown of kilometers of front-line roads began for her.
In October 1942, the tank battalion allocated part of its personnel, including all medical personnel, to staff the 79th separate tank regiment. Evgeniya Kostrikova, who was qualified as a nurse and had incomplete higher education, became a military paramedic of this regiment, which corresponded to the rank of lieutenant in army units. In December 1942, the 79th Tank Regiment as part of the Southern Front took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. A month later, this unit was renamed the 54th Guards Tank Regiment of the 5th Guards Zimnikovsky Mechanized Corps from the 2nd Guards Army. In the brutal battles for Stalingrad, when, according to the Soviet Marshal V.I. Chuikov, it seemed impossible to even raise a hand above the ground, military paramedic Evgenia Kostrikova managed to provide first aid to wounded soldiers right on the battlefield, and also carried them to a safe place under dense enemy fire, showing true courage.
After graduation Battle of Stalingrad The 54th Guards Tank Regiment, as part of the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts, took direct part in Battle of Kursk. Leonid Yuzefovich Girsh is a retired colonel, a participant in the famous tank battle that took place near Prokhorovka, and after the war, who became a writer and poet, then met Evgenia Kostrikova. The liaison officer of the 55th Guards Regiment, junior lieutenant Girsch, who was slightly wounded in battle, was provided with medical care by Kostrikova, who promptly sent him to the 46th medical battalion.
It is known for certain that as a military paramedic of the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps, E. S. Kostrikova was able to save the lives of 27 tankers, only during the fighting from July 12 to July 25, 1943. At the same time, Zhenya herself was wounded by a fragment of a German shell that hit her right cheek. For her exploits, she was presented with the Order of the Red Star. After completing treatment in the hospital, in the fall of 1943 she returned to her native mechanized corps, but no longer as a military paramedic.
After her wound and completion of treatment at the end of 1943, Guard Senior Lieutenant Evgenia Kostrikova was sent to the operational department of the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps. Information about this is contained in the memoirs “In the Fire of Tank Battles,” which were written by the former head of the operations department, General A. V. Ryazansky. However, Zhenya did not like the staff work. From the available front-line reports, she knew that enough women were already serving in the armored forces. Many of them managed to distinguish themselves in battles on Kursk Bulge, during the liberation of Orel from the Nazis, the fame of brave women tankers thundered on all fronts. Evgenia decided to become one of them, rather than remain at headquarters.
With the direct support of the head of the operational department of the corps, then Colonel Ryazansky, Evgenia began to apply for her direction to undergo training at the Kazan Tank School. Why was Kazan chosen? The thing is that even before the war, Alexander Pavlovich Ryazansky, from 1937 to 1941, passed military service at the Kazan armored advanced training courses technical staff. Initially as a commander of a tank battalion, and then as a teacher of tactics.
Initially, Evgenia Kostrikova was refused in every possible way, stating that a tanker is not female profession. Someone told her that “armor doesn’t like the weak,” someone that “it’s hard for guys on a tank.” As a result, I even had to personally contact the marshal Soviet Union K.E. Voroshilov, whom Kostrikova was able to convince that she had already sat at the controls of a formidable combat vehicle in her regiment more than once and would be able to master a tank no worse than any man.
Veterans who graduated from the Kazan Tank School recalled that its chief, Major General of Tank Forces V.I. Zhivlyuk, was initially very surprised when a young woman arrived to study with him, albeit with the rank of senior lieutenant. Then he dropped the phrase: “Yes, it’s like a woman on a ship.” However, the attitude towards the girl gradually changed, especially when later an order came to the school from the commander of the armored and mechanized forces of the Red Army to award Evgenia Kostrikova with the medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad.”
While studying in Kazan, Evgenia Kostrikova, along with other male cadets, mastered driving and shooting from a tank at the training ground, and also studied the tactical and technical characteristics of military equipment and weapons, taught the material part in the park, on simulators and in classrooms. Even after lights out, she continued to cram instructions and manuals on armored service. The fragile-looking girl steadfastly endured all the hardships of training, especially the difficult ones. physical exercise. Only in order to manage the levers of the tank well, real masculine strength was required. For example, to squeeze one of the two onboard clutch levers, a force of 15 kg was required, and to squeeze the main clutch pedal - 25 kg. Here Zhenya was helped by the hardening that she received as a nurse and military paramedic, when on the front line she had to carry dozens of wounded soldiers and commanders from the battlefield.
Evgenia Kostrikova graduated with honors from the accelerated courses at the Kazan Tank School and returned to her native 5th Guards Mechanized Corps, but as a commander of the T-34 tank. According to some information, she managed to take part in the battles for the liberation of the city of Kirovograd, which took place in January 1944. In total, during the years of the Great Patriotic War, about 20 women were able to become tank crews, but there were only 3 who graduated from the tank school. And only Evgenia Sergeevna Kostrikova, after graduating from the school, commanded a tank platoon, and at the end of the war, a tank company.
As part of her native corps, Kostrikova took part in the battles to cross the Oder and Neisse, and by April 30, 1945 she reached the southeastern outskirts of the German capital. From Berlin, its tanks were advanced to Czechoslovakia on May 5 to liberate Prague. It was in Czechoslovakia that Guard Captain Evgenia Kostrikova completed her combat career.
After the end of the war, the brave woman, who had gone through a glorious battle path on an equal basis with men, returned home, becoming an ordinary housewife. She lived for another 30 years in the field of victory, dying in 1975. Guard captain of tank forces Evgenia Sergeevna Kostrikova was buried in Moscow at the famous Vagankovskoye cemetery. Evgenia Kostrikova was a holder of two Orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, I and II degrees, as well as the medals “For Courage” and “For the Defense of Stalingrad.” All awards were received by the brave woman during the Great Patriotic War.
Information sources:
http://www.nabludatel.ru/new/2012/09/01/doch-sergeya-mironovicha-kirova
http://www.famhist.ru/famhist/shatunovskaj/0033357d.htm
http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/pc-browser/12/female_face_of_tank_forces
https://ru.wikipedia.org
Sergei Kirov, whose real name was Kostrikov, was not only famous politician, but was also the father of the famous tanker Evgenia Kostrikova. During the Great Patriotic War, Evgenia did not take advantage of Kirov’s high position and voluntarily went to the front. But one day she still had to resort to her connections in the highest echelons of power.
Evgenia's mother died early. Kirov entered into a second marriage, and Zhenya was sent to a boarding school. In 1934, Kirov was killed, and the girl became an orphan. Apparently, she did not hold a grudge against her father, because, as soon as she learned about new development Soviet engineers - the SMK tank, named after Sergei Mironovich Kirov, Evgenia wanted to become a tank driver.
However, Kostrikova began her front-line journey as a nurse. Having finished special courses, the girl immediately went to war.
Evgenia Kostrikova, along with other nurses, saved wounded soldiers. In 1942, she became a military paramedic of the 79th separate tank regiment, which, among other things, took part in the battle of Stalingrad. And on the Kursk Bulge, Evgenia received a serious injury: a mine fragment literally cut her cheek. This scar reminded Kostrikova of the war all her life.
As a paramedic, Evgenia Kostrikova saved dozens of lives and was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
One would think that the girl had forgotten about her cherished dream. But that's not true. After treatment, Evgenia Kostrikova was sent to headquarters. However, she did not like working there. And she began to demand that she be sent to the Kazan Tank School. Having received a refusal, Evgenia turned to Marshal Kliment Voroshilov. So she finally entered the school.
It is worth noting that during the Great Patriotic War, besides Kostrikova, only two female representatives became graduates of the tank school: Irina Levchenko and Alexandra Boyko. Girls were reluctantly taken into such educational establishments. After all, to control a tank you need the appropriate physical strength and endurance. For example, in order to depress the main clutch pedal of a tank, a force of 25 kilograms is needed.
After graduating from college, Evgenia Kostrikova first commanded a tank platoon, and by the end of the war she commanded an entire company. Journalists from the army newspaper “Red Star” wrote many times about the military exploits of tanker Kostrikova.
Eugenia’s battle journey ended in the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague, from where she safely returned to her homeland. By that time she was only 24 years old.
Evgenia Kostrikova died in 1975 and was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
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During the Great Patriotic War, women not only sat behind the levers of tanks, but also occupied command positions in tank forces. One of the tank officers was Evgenia Kostrikova. Evgenia Sergeevna Kostrikova - Soviet officer, guard captain, participant in the Great Patriotic War. Evgenia Kostrikova was the daughter of the famous Soviet political and statesman Sergei Mironovich Kirov (real name Kostrikov).
During the war, she successively held the positions of military paramedic of the 79th separate tank regiment from the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps, then tank commander, tank platoon and company commander.
Ekaterina Kostrikova was born in 1921 in Vladikavkaz. She is the daughter of S. M. Kirov, who at that time served as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army of the Red Army. This army went to Baku in the spring of 1920 to establish Soviet power there. It was here that Kostrikov met the woman who became his first wife. However, the marriage was short-lived; soon his beloved fell ill and died. In 1926, Sergei Kirov was elected first secretary of the Leningrad Gubernia Committee (regional committee), as well as the city party committee. In this post, he was constantly busy with party and government affairs. His second wife, Maria Lvovna Marcus (1885-1945), did not accept little Zhenya into the family; as a result, the girl was sent to an orphanage. Thus, after the murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934, little Evgenia was left completely alone. She graduated from a boarding school at one of the “special purpose” orphanages that were established by the USSR government for “children of war” from Spain. In 1938, she was able to enter the Moscow Higher Technical School. Bauman. Among the girl’s close friends were representatives of the party elite Timur Frunze, the Mikoyan brothers (who were studying to be pilots during these years), as well as the Spaniard Ruben Ibarruri, who studied at the Moscow Infantry School. Supreme Council of the RSFSR. In those years, Evgenia Kostrikova, like most of her peers, dreamed of military exploits. Unfortunately for many, fate gave her generation such a chance.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, having an incomplete higher education behind her, Evgenia Kostrikova completed a three-month course for nurses and then volunteered to go to the front. The newly minted nurse was sent to a medical platoon of a separate tank battalion, which took part in the battles on the Western Front during the Battle of Moscow. It was near Moscow that the countdown of kilometers of front-line roads began for her.In October 1942, the tank battalion allocated part of its personnel, including all medical personnel, to staff the 79th separate tank regiment. Evgeniya Kostrikova, who was qualified as a nurse and had incomplete higher education, became a military paramedic of this regiment, which corresponded to the rank of lieutenant in army units. In December 1942, the 79th Tank Regiment as part of the Southern Front took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. A month later, this unit was renamed the 54th Guards Tank Regiment of the 5th Guards Zimnikovsky Mechanized Corps from the 2nd Guards Army. In the brutal battles for Stalingrad, when, according to the Soviet Marshal V.I. Chuikov, it seemed impossible to even raise a hand above the ground, military paramedic Evgenia Kostrikova managed to provide first aid to wounded soldiers right on the battlefield, and also carried them to a safe place under dense enemy fire, showing real courage. After the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, the 54th Guards Tank Regiment, as part of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts, took a direct part in the Battle of Kursk. Leonid Yuzefovich Girsh is a retired colonel, a participant in the famous tank battle that took place near Prokhorovka, and after the war, who became a writer and poet, then met Evgenia Kostrikova. The liaison officer of the 55th Guards Regiment, junior lieutenant Girsch, who was slightly wounded in battle, was provided with medical care by Kostrikova, who promptly sent him to the 46th medical battalion.
