The feat of the medical instructor Valeria Osipovna Gnarovskaya. Personal feat of medical instructor Valeria Osipovna Gnarovskaya. Know Soviet people that you are the descendants of fearless warriors! Know, Soviet people, that the blood flows in you great heroes who gave their lives for the Motherland,

Know Soviet people that you are the descendants of fearless warriors!
Know, Soviet people, that the blood flows in you great heroes,
Those who gave their lives for the Motherland, without thinking about the benefits!
Know and honor Soviet people the exploits of grandfathers and fathers!

“I stood up in full growth among the grasses of my relatives.
Formidable, not a womanly menacing look.
She fell under a German tank,
A girl with a bunch of grenades. "

A. Gorbachev

On all fronts of the Great Patriotic War In the very heat of the battle, one could see girls in white coats - medical instructors, nurses, paramedics, doctors, who made up about half of the entire medical staff of the Armed Forces.

They saved the lives of thousands of Soviet soldiers and commanders by bandaging them on the battlefield, taking them to shelters, delivering them to medical battalions and hospitals. To protect the wounded, nurses, orderlies, medical orderlies and paramedics often had to take up arms and use grenades.

The chief surgeon of the Red Army, Professor N.N. Burdenko, who was himself an orderly during the Russo-Japanese war, said:

“Remember, friends! Our whole country is looking at a soldier with a sanitary bag bending over his wounded comrade! "

The doctors never forgot about it ...

Nurse Vera Lebedeva, which carried away from the battlefield more than a dozen wounded soldiers and commanders, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for military exploits. She walked along the front-line roads to complete victory.

Ekaterina Demina, a medical instructor of the 369th separate battalion of the marines, which was part of the Azov and then the Danube military flotillas, for courage and heroism shown during the war years, was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union.

During the Kerch-Eltigen landing operation, the marines were met with furious enemy fire near the minefields.

There was a momentary confusion that threatened everyone with death. And at this moment the nurse of the battalion Petrov G.K. screaming “There are no mines here, guys! Forward, comrades, dare forward! " carried away the rest of the fighters. On the same night, a brave girl carried out 20 wounded from the battlefield. And there are thousands of such examples ...

To the sanitary instructor Valeria Osipovna Gnarovskaya was only nineteen years old when she accomplished the feat, giving her life in the name of saving the wounded soldiers.

In 1941 Valeria graduated from a secondary school in the city of Podporozhye, Leningrad Region. The war began, Valeria's father, Osip Osipovich Gnarovsky, went to the front in the very first days of the war. The fighting was approaching Leningrad, and the Gnarovsky family: mother, grandmother, Valeria and her younger sister in September were evacuated to the Tyumen region, to the distant Siberian village of Berdyuzhye, where Valeria graduated from nursing courses. From Ishim she went to the front, fought at Stalingrad.

In June 1942, when the 907th Infantry Regiment of the 244th Infantry Division of the 12th Army of the Southwestern Front took up defensive positions along the eastern bank of the Seversky Donets River, a puny girl in a soldier's uniform entered the dugout of the commander of the 1st battalion and reported:

- Medical instructor Gnarovskaya. Arrived for service.

The battalion commander looked at the medical instructor, who looked like a teenager, doubted:

- Will he be able to take out wounded soldiers from the field?

Proposed:

“You'd better go to the field hospital. Take it easy there ...

But Valeria Gnarovskaya flatly refused to go to the first-aid post.

“You don’t look that I am small,” she said. - I'm strong. You will see!

She was left in the battalion. It was difficult for Valeria, her letters to her mother tell about it. At first, the girl could not look at open wounds, with great difficulty she pulled the seriously wounded from the battlefield on a raincoat. But she has a character, and she wrote about her difficulties with humor. In the battle near the village of Golaya Dolina alone, Valeria Gnarovska saved more than 40 wounded soldiers and commanders and killed about 30 German soldiers.

In the battles on the outskirts of Stalingrad, Valeria Gnarovskaya was at the front line and, under continuous deadly fire, continued to provide assistance to the wounded, carried the soldiers out of the fire and delivered them to the medical and sanitary company. She steadfastly endured all the hardships of life at the front, inhuman stress and, forgetting about the danger, saved our soldiers. Having received a concussion, after which she began to hear poorly, she was admitted to the hospital, but soon returned to the front line. The regiment participated in continuous battles with the enemy, Valeria performed her duties as a medical instructor, pulled out the wounded from the battlefield. For about three weeks they fought surrounded, Gnarovskaya fell ill with typhoid fever. The soldiers broke through the leading edge to their own and carried the sick Valeria in their arms. Medical instructor Valeria Gnarovskaya was awarded the medal "For Courage".

In the spring of 1943 Valeria was already at the 3rd Ukrainian Front. It was September 1943, on account of Gnarovskaya there were three hundred wounded soldiers and officers whom she carried out under fire from the battlefield ...

It happened on an autumn morning in 1943. Our troops fought intense battles on the banks of the Dnieper, especially fiercely the enemy resisted on the approaches to Zaporozhye.

The battalion, in which Valeria Gnarovskaya served, drove the Nazis out of the half-burnt village of Verbovaya, Chervonoarmeisky district, Zaporozhye region. Several times Verbovoe passed from hand to hand, and now the village is ours. They took a deep breath and marched towards the Dnieper. A company of infantry was in front, followed by an artillery battery. As soon as we left the village and approached the forest plantations, we came under machine-gun fire from a carefully disguised enemy ambush.

The fight was short but bloody. The Nazis fled, but ours also had losses. After burying the dead, they gathered all the wounded and provided them with first aid. They pitched tents in the forest plantations, placed the wounded before being sent to the hospital. The foreman of the medical service, Gnarovskaya, remained with them.

“Swallow” was affectionately called by her fighters. At dawn, cars with red crosses were supposed to come for the wounded. But as soon as the sun rose, the growing roar of the engine was heard, and Valeria saw that two stray fascist "tigers" were moving from our rear towards the forest plantations. The first tank went straight to the tents, crushing bushes and destroying young trees.

In these critical moments, the nineteen-year-old girl did what the duty of a true sister of mercy told her to do. She collected from all the wounded bags with grenades and, hung with them, threw herself under the tracks. There was a deafening explosion, the tank froze, enveloped in black smoke.

Valeria died, but at the cost of her life she saved seventy wounded soldiers. This happened on September 23, 1943. The Red Army men arrived in time and knocked out the second tank.

The breakthrough was eliminated. For the accomplished feat, the medical instructor Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna, who was not yet twenty, was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Having learned about the death of her daughter, Valeria's mother, Evdokia Mikhailovna, addressed a letter to the commander and all the soldiers of the 907th regiment. She wrote:

“It hurts a mother's heart unbearably to realize that my daughter, my Swallow, is no longer in the world. It seems, not tears, but blood flowing from my eyes. I lived with the hope of seeing her, and now this hope is gone ... But I am proud of my daughter. I am proud that she did not hide in a difficult time for the Motherland, did not get cold feet, and with her head held high, she accepted death, saving the wounded. The people will not forget her, just as they will not forget other defenders of the Fatherland, who laid down their heads for the freedom of their native land ... ”.

In reply Gnarovskaya Evdokia Mikhailovna received a collective letter from the soldiers and officers of the regiment.

"You have become a dear mother for all of us," wrote the front-line soldiers, "We swear to you that we will avenge the death of our sister Valeria, for your bitter tears, for the tears of all our mothers, wives and sisters, our brides."

Shattered by shells, burned down, the village of Verbovaya rose from the ruins long ago. Now this is the village of Gnarovskoe, and in its center lies the ashes of the heroine. An obelisk was thrown up near the Moscow - Simferopol highway ...

Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna- medical instructor of 907 infantry regiment 244th Infantry Division of the 12th Army of the Southwestern Front, private.

She was born on October 18, 1923 in the village of Modolitsy, Plyussky District, Pskov Region, in the family of an employee. Russian. Graduated from Podporozhskaya secondary school named after A.S. Pushkin.

With the outbreak of World War II, her father was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army, and with the approach of German troops to Leningrad, the Gnarovsky family was evacuated to Ishim, Tyumen region. There they were sent to the village of Berdyuzhye, where Valeria, together with her mother, began to work at the local post office.

From the very beginning of the war, Valeria repeatedly appealed to the local military enlistment office with a demand to send her to the front, but each time she was refused. In the spring of 1942, the Komsomol members of the village of Berdyuzhye went to the Ishim station and achieved their enrollment in the 229th rifle division... Valeria, together with her friends, underwent military training, studied sanitary engineering.

In July 1942, the division was sent to the Stalingrad front and immediately entered into heavy battles, in which Valeria Gnarovskaya showed courage, raising the Red Army soldiers to attack and carrying the wounded off the battlefield.

According to the memoirs of her front-line friend E. Doronina:
On the approaches to the front, in the heat, along a dusty road, in full gear, we walked day and night ... Not far from the Surovikino station, our unit went into action. There were strong battles. .. I was anxious in my soul, especially in the first minutes. We were so confused that we were afraid to get out of cover on the battlefield. The strikes of artillery shells, the explosions of bombs - everything mixed into a continuous roar. Everything on the ground seemed to be crumbling and the earth crumbling underfoot.

As I remember now, Valeria was the first to run out of the trench and shouted: “Comrades! It's not scary to die for the Motherland! Went!" - And without the slightest hesitation, everyone left the trenches, rushed to the battlefield.

For 17 days, the division fought incessant battles with the enemy, was surrounded and within a week made its way to its own. Valeria courageously performed the duty of a physician. But soon she fell ill with typhoid fever. The soldiers, breaking through the encirclement, carried a barely living girl in their arms. She was awarded the medal "For Courage". After recovering again at the front.

In the summer of 1943, Valeria Gnarovskaya was again taken to the hospital with a concussion, but soon returned to the unit. In a letter to her mother dated August 22, 1943, she wrote that she was alive and well, that she had been to the hospital for the second time, after the concussion she had difficulty hearing, but she hoped that it would go away:

From 15.08 to 21.08.1943 there was a heated battle with the Fritzes. The Germans rushed to the skyscraper where we were, but all their attempts to break through were in vain. Our fighters - all my dear and lovely comrades - fought steadily and bravely ... Many of them died a heroic death, but I survived and I owe you, my dear ones, to tell you that I did a great job. She carried about 30 seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefield.

During the period of offensive battles, V.O. Gnarovskaya saved the lives of over 300 wounded.

On September 23, 1943, in battles near the village of Ivanenki, now the village of Gnarovskoe in the Volnyansk region of the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine, a sanitary instructor of the 907th rifle regiment of the 244th rifle division, Private Valeria Gnarovskaya, pulled out the wounded and brought them to the dressing station. At this time, two German "tigers" broke through in the direction of the dressing station. Rescuing the wounded, Valeria Gnarovskaya with a bunch of grenades threw herself under one of them and blew it up, the second was hit by the Red Army men who arrived in time. She was buried in the village of Gnarovskoe.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 3, 1944, for the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command and the shown courage and heroism in battles with the Nazi invaders, the Red Army soldier Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

She was awarded the Order of Lenin and a medal.

In the city of Podporozhye, Leningrad Region, Hero of the Soviet Union V.O. a monument was erected, and a memorial plaque on the school building. The streets in the cities of Podporozhye and Tyumen bear the name of the Heroine. In the center of the village of Gnarovskoe there is a bust of V.O. Gnarovskaya, at the place of her death - a memorial sign.

From performance to award

Only in the battle for the city of Dolitsa near the Seversky Donets River, she carried 47 wounded soldiers and officers with their weapons from the battlefield ... I personally destroyed 28 German soldiers and officers. Under the Ivanenkovo ​​state farm, 2 enemy Tiger tanks broke through our line of defense - rushed to the regiment's headquarters. At this critical moment, the tanks approached 60-70 meters to the headquarters location. Gnarovskaya, grabbing a bunch of grenades and standing up to her full height, rushed to meet the enemy tank in front and, sacrificing her life, threw herself under the tank.

As a result of the explosion, the tank was stopped ...

Marat Samsonov The feat of medical instructor Valeria Gnarovskaya 1984

Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna - medical instructor of the 907th Infantry Regiment of the 244th Infantry Division of the 12th Army of the Southwestern Front, private.

She was born on October 18, 1923 in the village of Modolitsy, Plyussky District, Pskov Region, in the family of an employee. Russian. Graduated from Podporozhskaya secondary school named after A.S. Pushkin.

After the start of the Great Patriotic War, in September 1941, she was evacuated to the city of Ishim, Tyumen region. She worked as a telephone operator in the Istoshinskiy post office of the Berdyuzhskiy district of the Tyumen region and in the Berdyuzhskiy post office.

In the Red Army since 1942. She graduated from the courses of medical instructors. In the army since July 1942.

I.M.Penteshin The feat of the Hero of the Soviet Union, sanitary instructor Valeria Gnarovskaya September 23, 1943. 1961 g.

Medical instructor of the 907th Infantry Regiment (244th Infantry Division, 12th Army, South-Western Front), Red Army Komsomol member Valeria Gnarovskaya saved the lives of many soldiers and officers. Only in the battle near the village of Golaya Dolina, Slavyansky district of Donetsk region of Ukraine, she carried 47 wounded from the battlefield. Defending the wounded, she destroyed over 20 enemy soldiers and officers.

On September 23, 1943, in the vicinity of the village of Ivanenki, now the village of Gnarovskoye, Volnyanskiy district, Zaporozhye region of Ukraine, a brave girl with a bunch of grenades threw herself under a tank and blew it up.

“Valeria, together with the wounded, was at the sanitary point, near the headquarters dugout. When she was bandaging the wound to one of the soldiers, his neighbor shouted:

Sister, run! Tanks on the left!

Valeria, seeing the approaching "tigers", commanded:

Who can take shelter! Pomegranates to me!

Firing incessantly from cannons and machine guns, the tanks approached the sanitary point.

Seraphim Volodin Sketch for the painting "Valeria", dedicated to the feat of the 20-year-old nurse Valeria Gnarovskaya 1970

Running out to meet the tank, Valeria threw a grenade and fell. Explosion! But the lead tank was moving. The wounded were already thirty ... twenty ... ten meters away. Dead zone! A bunch of grenades ... Stand up! Throw! And ... And under the track of the tank! The crash of the explosion, the clang, the black smoke!

The stunned wounded looked in dismay. The Tiger was on fire. And Valeria ?! Valeria was not there ...

People were saved. And Valeria died. The soldiers who came to the rescue knocked out the second tank. The breakthrough was eliminated. Night has come.

Radio Moscow reported: "On September 23, forty-nine German tanks were hit and destroyed in all sectors of the front." Rescuing the wounded, one of them was destroyed by Valeria Gnarovskaya. Thus the victory was forged.

Fighting friends - fellow soldiers of Valeria Gnarovskaya wrote to her father: “Every time we go into battle, we remember your daughter, Osip Osipovich. Her feat calls us forward! Forward to the final victory! " "

She was buried in the village of Gnarovskoe.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 3, 1944, for the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command and the shown courage and heroism in battles with the Nazi invaders, the Red Army soldier Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

She was awarded the Order of Lenin and a medal.

In the city of Podporozhye, Leningrad Region, Hero of the Soviet Union V.O. a monument was erected, and a memorial plaque on the school building. The streets in the cities of Podporozhye and Tyumen bear the name of the Heroine.

A feat captured on canvas. V. Gnarovskaya

Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna - medical instructor of the 907th Infantry Regiment of the 244th Infantry Division of the 12th Army of the Southwestern Front, private.

She was born on October 18, 1923 in the village of Modolitsy, Plyussky District, Pskov Region, in the family of an employee. Russian. Graduated from Podporozhskaya secondary school named after A.S. Pushkin.

With the outbreak of World War II, her father was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army, and with the approach of German troops to Leningrad, the Gnarovsky family was evacuated to Ishim, Tyumen region. There they were sent to the village of Berdyuzhye, where Valeria, together with her mother, began to work at the local post office.

From the very beginning of the war, Valeria repeatedly appealed to the local military enlistment office with a demand to send her to the front, but each time she was refused. In the spring of 1942, the Komsomol members of the village of Berdyuzhye went to the Ishim station and secured their enrollment in the 229th rifle division that was being formed there. Valeria, together with her friends, underwent military training, studied sanitary engineering.

In July 1942, the division was sent to the Stalingrad front and immediately entered into heavy battles, in which Valeria Gnarovskaya showed courage, raising the Red Army soldiers to attack and carrying the wounded off the battlefield.

According to the memoirs of her front-line friend E. Doronina:

On the approaches to the front, in the heat, along a dusty road, in full gear, we walked day and night ... Not far from the Surovikino station, our unit went into action. There were strong battles. .. I was anxious in my soul, especially in the first minutes. We were so confused that we were afraid to get out of cover on the battlefield. The strikes of artillery shells, the explosions of bombs - everything mixed into a continuous roar. Everything on the ground seemed to be crumbling and the earth crumbling underfoot.

As I remember now, Valeria was the first to run out of the trench and shouted: “Comrades! It's not scary to die for the Motherland! Went!" - And without the slightest hesitation, everyone left the trenches, rushed to the battlefield.

For 17 days, the division fought incessant battles with the enemy, was surrounded and within a week made its way to its own. Valeria courageously performed the duty of a physician. But soon she fell ill with typhoid fever. The soldiers, breaking through the encirclement, carried a barely living girl in their arms. She was awarded the medal "For Courage". After recovering again at the front.

In the summer of 1943, Valeria Gnarovskaya was again taken to the hospital with a concussion, but soon returned to the unit. In a letter to her mother dated August 22, 1943, she wrote that she was alive and well, that she had been to the hospital for the second time, after the concussion she had difficulty hearing, but she hoped that it would go away:

From 15.08 to 21.08.1943 there was a heated battle with the Fritzes. The Germans rushed to the skyscraper where we were, but all their attempts to break through were in vain. Our fighters - all my dear and lovely comrades - fought steadily and bravely ... Many of them died a heroic death, but I survived and I must tell you, my dear ones, that I did a great job. She carried about 30 seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefield.

During the period of offensive battles, V.O. Gnarovskaya saved the lives of over 300 wounded.

On September 23, 1943, in battles near the village of Ivanenki, now the village of Gnarovskoe in the Volnyansk region of the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine, a sanitary instructor of the 907th rifle regiment of the 244th rifle division, Private Valeria Gnarovskaya, pulled out the wounded and brought them to the dressing station. At this time, two German "tigers" broke through in the direction of the dressing station. Rescuing the wounded, Valeria Gnarovskaya with a bunch of grenades threw herself under one of them and blew it up, the second was hit by the Red Army men who arrived in time. She was buried in the village of Gnarovskoe.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 3, 1944, for the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command and the shown courage and heroism in battles with the Nazi invaders, the Red Army soldier Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

She was awarded the Order of Lenin and a medal.

In the city of Podporozhye, Leningrad Region, Hero of the Soviet Union V.O. a monument was erected, and a memorial plaque on the school building. The streets in the cities of Podporozhye and Tyumen bear the name of the Heroine. In the center of the village of Gnarovskoe there is a bust of V.O. Gnarovskaya, at the place of her death - a memorial sign.

From performance to award

... Only in the battle for the city of Dolitsa near the Seversky Donets River, she carried 47 wounded soldiers and officers with their weapons from the battlefield ... I personally destroyed 28 German soldiers and officers. Under the Ivanenkovo ​​state farm, 2 enemy Tiger tanks broke through our line of defense - rushed to the regiment's headquarters. At this critical moment, the tanks approached 60-70 meters to the headquarters location. Gnarovskaya, grabbing a bunch of grenades and standing up to her full height, rushed to meet the enemy tank in front and, sacrificing her life, threw herself under the tank.

As a result of the explosion, the tank was stopped ...

Commander of the 907th Infantry Regiment of the 244th Zaporozhye Red Banner Division, Colonel Pozhidaev, March 21, 1944.

During the Great Patriotic War, at least 570 thousand female military personnel (including up to 80 thousand officers) served in the ranks of the Red Army. Some sources, by the way, increase this figure to 800 thousand or more.
And this is not counting the partisans and underground workers, as well as millions of modest and heroic home front workers who deserve a commendable word no less than front-line soldiers!
N. Ya. Booth. Fighting girlfriends
The story of medical instructor Valeria Gnarovskaya, despite the bronze laurels that posthumously crowned her young head, looks completely ordinary for a woman - a field physician of the Red Army.
Ordinary - from the point of view of the everyday hard, dangerous and noble work of these desperate girls with sanitary bags over their shoulders, tired and coarse from the war, unlike their screen images in later cinema ...
Ordinary - from the point of view of their unparalleled heroism and high self-sacrifice.
These are the usual milestones for their: voluntary departure to the front - service in a combat unit - many wounded bandaged under fire - their own wounds and distinctions for bravery - death in battle ...
What's next? Probably - memory and example.
Our heroine was born on October 18, 1923 in the village of Modolitsy, Pskov region. Social "origin", the importance of which in the Soviet society of the pre-war years is difficult to overestimate, Valeria, nevertheless, was not entirely workers' and peasants - "from employees." Her father, Osip Osipovich Gnarovsky, in Soviet time who served "in the post office", was a man with an unfinished pre-revolutionary higher education and a participant in the First World War. There is a version that he could be a descendant of the Polish revolutionary Ignatius Gnarovsky, who was exiled to Siberia for participating in the Polish uprising of 1863-64.
One way or another, the daughter of the “commander of the rural post office” of the Yandebsky village council of the Leningrad region (the family moved there in 1928) grew up as a completely “correct” Soviet girl, a pioneer, an OSOAVIAKHIM activist, and a good sportswoman. She graduated from the seven-year school, entered the secondary school. Pushkin in the nearby town of Podporozhye, in turn joined the Komsomol and was in good standing in the local district committee. Like all her peers, she read out textbook educational works of Soviet literature for young people and dreamed of the proud exploits and construction projects of communism ...
Too many girls in the USSR dreamed of the fate of fearless red warriors, and not of the quiet happiness of love (although, IMHO, this could be combined). But did not this help them to endure the monstrous trials of the war years?
However, the sister of our heroine Victoria recalled that, in addition to the bestseller (as they would say today) by Nikolai Ostrovsky "How the Steel Was Tempered" and the assembly and disassembly of the three-line at the OSOAVIAKHIM courses, Valeria also had a completely feminine hobby - the cultivation of garden and indoor flowers.
Unfortunately, this is almost all that is known about the human, everyday traits of the future brave front-line soldier. Like so many of her ill-fated and heroic generation, Valeria Gnarovskaya was destined to wear a uniform Red Army "khaki" model of 1935 too early, and after an early death on the field of honor - to "bronze" in memorials.
From charming ... Sorry, this word would have seemed too "petty-bourgeois" in the pre-war USSR! From a pretty living graduate of the Podporozhskaya school, there was only one small and vague photograph, from which you can't even tell exactly what color her eyes and hair were.

That is why the artists, who subsequently turned to the feat of medical instructor Valeria Gnarovskaya, did not hesitate to give free rein to the author's imagination, making her either a Great Russian light-eyed blonde, or a dark-haired dark-skinned woman with southern features ...

The war did not spare either one or the other.

Go with your sympathy
They are not asking for a glance.
Go there, meet them -
That's all they need from you.

It seems that these lines, written in those days by the front-line correspondent Konstantin Simonov, are addressed to a little dusty nurse who, together with her division, made an exhausting 150-km march before entering the battle.
A unit of the Red Army at a halt after a march, Stalingrad Front, 1942 (as attributed). In the photo - a girl-sanitary instructor


Our heroine first came under fire on July 26, 1942 in the area of ​​Surovikino station, when the troops of the 24th Panzer Corps (XXIV. Panzerkorps) of the Wehrmacht, with air support, broke through the right flank of the hastily prepared defense of the 229th Division and reached the Chir River.
The first battle of 18-year-old Valeria was filled with chaos and fear of defeat, disorderly retreat and inevitable panic: "Everything is lost!" However, even in this, to put it mildly, not conducive to optimism, the young nurse suddenly showed character.
Her fighting friend Ekaterina Doronina recalls:
“We were so confused that we were afraid to get out of hiding on the battlefield. The strikes of artillery shells, the explosions of bombs - everything mixed into a continuous roar. Everything on the ground seemed to be crumbling, and the earth was crumbling underfoot.
As I remember now: at that moment Valeria ran out of the trench and shouted: “Comrades! Look, I'm not afraid! Went! For the Motherland! " "And after her, all our junior medical personnel left the trenches, rushed to the battlefield to help the wounded."
It is with this invariable: "I'm not afraid!" Valeria Gnarovskaya went her valiant combat path to the end ...
In her first battle, according to the official biography of our heroine, she carried up to ten wounded from under fire.
The dramatic picture of a fragile nurse dragging a hefty wounded Red Army soldier to the medical battalion on her weak shoulders is one of the most popular public consciousness images of the Great Patriotic War.
This image is both true and false at the same time, like most common military legends.
To begin with, an attempt to independently get the wounded "all the way" to the medical field station would have turned off the military medic from work directly on the battlefield, where others were awaiting emergency help. And secondly, unless the wounded man is of slender build, and the nurse was not engaged in weightlifting "in civilian life", for most of the medical girls there is a long journey with a load of 70-80-90 kg. (on average, a strong adult man weighs so much, plus equipment and personal weapons) on his shoulders would threaten to end like this:

The task of field doctors (medical instructors or other regular junior medical personnel) accompanying the unit in battle was, first of all, to find wounded soldiers and provide them with first aid, which would allow them to hold out until doctors could take care of them. And if this happened under fire, then the medical instructor had to help the wounded get to the nearest shelter. So, brave women with sanitary bags had to drag out the mutilated Red Army soldiers by dragging, on raincoats, on their shoulders, but mostly for short "tactical" distances.
In this photo, a medical instructor has just covered a wounded Red Army soldier in a trench.


Then the field physician was obliged to organize (and not personally carry out!) The next stage as soon as possible - the evacuation.
To deliver wounded personnel to dressing points in each unit, teams of military orderlies with stretchers were to be assigned (another matter, with a chronic shortage of bayonets, commanders often skimped on this duty).
Combat orderlies with a stretcher. The medical girl accompanying the wounded is dressed in trousers, which many female military personnel preferred to wear in the field instead of uniform skirts, and has a short hair (for reasons of convenience)


The wounded in specific conditions could be carried by the closest comrades in the unit (the documents of the Special Departments indicate that sometimes this took the form of hidden evasion from participation in the battle) or sent with special medical or associated transport - automobile, horse-drawn. In winter, for these purposes, in a number of sectors of the front, even sledges were used, harnessed by smart dogs trained to find their way to the medical battalion on their own.
A medical woman assists a wounded man who is immersed in a sled with a dog sled


It is precisely the organized evacuation that in most cases should be borne in mind when it comes to accounting for the wounded taken from the battlefield by the medical instructors, and not forgetting about their little-known, but no less valiant assistants - combat orderlies.
Although in unforeseen conditions of war there were episodes when a medical woman rescued a wounded man, carrying him on herself for many kilometers - but this already represented an emergency situation, or, in other words, a feat!
However, let's return to the combat debut of our brave heroine - private medical service Valeria Gnarovskaya.
Its 229th Infantry Division "bought" for organizing the decisive Soviet defense on the Volga and Don for almost a month - it continued organized resistance from July 23 to approximately August 15-16, 1942. Having recovered from the shock of the initial defeats, the division still managed to regroup its forces directly on the battlefield, inflict a strong counterattack (with the support of units of the 112th division, ten tanks of the 163rd tank brigade and aviation), throw the enemy back across the Chir River, chase him - and at the same time get into a deadly encirclement ...
Soviet armor-piercers are fighting Wehrmacht tanks, Stalingrad Front, summer 1942


One of the ten tanks of the 163rd Tank Brigade (T-34), which supported the counterattack of the 229th Infantry Division, raised from the bottom of the Chir River and is currently a memorial in Volgograd


Valeria all this time was in the thick of the fighting, either rescuing the wounded under fire, or working to exhaustion in the divisional medical battalion.
If she had any illusions about the ugly and disgusting guise of war, now, amid the terrible wounds, the painful agony of crippled people, dirt and death, they should have finally dissipated.
It's amazing how in this hell our heroine and tens of thousands of others like her could not only professionally and fearlessly fulfill their duty, but also shine the light of their femininity to the wounded soldiers in the stuffy darkness of medical dugouts and tents!
And this is not a pretty phrase from official history, but the true image of the "dear sister", albeit fairly idealized, preserved in the memory of the front-line soldiers.

Stranger, stranger
From the camp tent
Everyone's own and everyone's dear
Merciful sister ...

This song, popular in another, First world war among Russian soldiers, Valeria Gnarovskaya should have heard from her father - a participant in the "imperialist massacre." Who knows, maybe it was these lines that gave her the strength to withstand.
And Valeria had strength - despite her miniature build and doll-like face, our heroine was very hardy, physically strong and, as they say, “seven-wired” - her comrades recall.
Some fighters called her Valyushka, others - Lerochka, but in the division Valeria got another affectionate nickname - Swallow. It went with her to the end, migrating to her new parts. However, probably because she herself liked it very much.
Bullets and shells have spared our heroine so far, but the infection has not spared. Hot in battle and exhausted by the heat, the Red Army soldiers drank muddy water directly from open reservoirs. Valeria also got drunk, although she, as a doctor, was well aware that it was dangerous. But the thirst was stronger!
The water contained the causative agent of typhoid fever, from which then parts of the Red Army in the southern direction suffered a lot - the number of cases reached in August 1942 5.5% of all losses!
Valeria collapsed with a severe attack of the disease just when her division was dying surrounded.
Making their way to their own, scattered subunits and groups were forced to leave their wounded and sick to the mercy of fate and the enemy ... Of the staff of the 229th division of about 11 thousand bayonets, only 528 managed to avoid death or captivity (according to other sources - about 700) fighters and commanders. But they could not leave the sick girl!
On their shoulders, the Red Army men carried Valeria, thrashing about in the heat and delirium, out of the encirclement.
These simple rude men knew how to show examples of the highest chivalry in relation to women! To be honest, the opposite happened, but this does not apply to the topic of our story.
The grave of soldiers of the 229th rifle division near the Surovikino station

Barely alive Valeria was evacuated to the rear hospital. The disease was very serious, and the girl could not escape from the tenacious clutches of death for a long time. But the military medicine of World War II learned to fight infectious diseases quite effectively, at least in comparison with the First.
Doctors left the girl, and, barely getting to her feet, she was already helping to look after her comrades in misfortune in the hospital. Then our heroine was awarded the first award - the medal "For Courage", which, despite its modest statute, was highly valued among the front-line soldiers. FOR CHALLENGE - there is nothing to add!

Unfortunately, it was not possible to find out the number of the hospital in which Valeria Gnarovskaya was being treated. It can only be assumed that after recovering, she continued her service there. She managed to achieve a transfer to the front only in May or June 1943, moreover, in the 244th Infantry Division (3rd Ukrainian Front), into which elements of her native 229th who had escaped from the encirclement were poured.
Valeria was enrolled in the 907th Infantry Regiment as a company medical instructor. By the way, according to the award list dated 03/21/1944 (ie already posthumous), our heroine until her last day wore the honest and modest title of "private", and petty officers' shoulder straps were added to her in some post-war paintings, most likely for impressiveness.
It must be said that of all field physicians, the medical officer of a company (battery, squadron) is the most field one. He goes into battle with his unit and provides assistance to the wounded, being directly in battle formations. In terms of the degree of danger, this, perhaps, can be compared with the service of an infantry soldier, but it only requires incomparably greater professional training.
About 40% of the medical instructors of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War were women.
Together with her regiment and her company, Valeria Gnarovskaya took part in the offensive of Soviet troops in Ukraine, in the liberation of the Donetsk region, Zaporozhye.
About this stage of her combat path it is known, in particular, from letters to parents that were published by the heroine's biographers after the war.
The military censorship, which meticulously scrutinized the correspondence of the front-line soldiers for leaks of secret data of a tactical and "ideological" nature, undoubtedly left a noticeable imprint on all correspondence from the Red Army in the field. Soldiers and commanders, as a rule, wrote only what they could.
However, the letters of Valeria Gnarovskaya too strongly resemble the style of a divisional newspaper with limited circulation.
For example, to the mother of August 22, 1943:
“From 15.08 to 21.08.1943 there was a heated battle with the Fritzes. The Germans rushed to the skyscraper where we were, but all their attempts to break through were in vain. Our fighters - all my dear and lovely comrades - fought steadily and bravely ... Many of them died a heroic death, but I survived and I must tell you, my dear ones, that I did a great job. About 30 seriously wounded soldiers were evacuated from the battlefield. The command of the regiment noted my work and, it seems, presented me for a government award ... "
There, however, contains information about the shell shock received in battle and complaints about hearing problems after it - more humanely.
Or to my father, from the active army to the active army, the date is unknown:
“Do not be bored and do not worry, I will return home soon with a victory. Or I will die, but I’m not afraid ... Know that if so, I will die with honor ”.
Death was part of reality for the millions involved in the Second world people, and the fact that she was present in the letters from the front is not surprising ... But in general, it does not look very much like the style of a loving daughter and a girl who has not yet turned twenty!
One of two conclusions suggests itself: either the official biographers "worked" on the text of the letters in the post-war years, turning them into impeccable propaganda material, or ...
Or the relationship of our heroine with her parents was by no means close and trusting.
One way or another, the published letters of Valeria Gnarovskaya can tell little about her character. Unless that, despite her youth, she was a cautious girl and in those difficult times did not trust the paper of innermost experiences. But her battle motto is: "I'm not afraid!" sounds in letters too.
The bold and decisive sanitary instructor Gnarovskaya was on an excellent account at the command of the regiment. In a combat situation, she provided assistance to 338 wounded soldiers and commanders - a solid list, although experienced medical instructors in 1943 often had 500 or more. “In critical moments of the battle, by personal example and heroism, she carried the fighters of units along to military exploits, personally participating in the battles, Gnarovskaya destroyed 28 German soldiers and officers,” says the award list of our heroine, signed by the commander of the 907th Infantry Regiment Colonel Pozhidaev.
Award list for Valeria Gnarovskaya

The fact that Valeria more than once had to personally take part in battles with weapons in her hands (a common practice for a front-line medical instructor of the Red Army), this clearly testifies, as well as her bold behavior. However, we will keep in mind that even an infantry soldier (not a sniper) and a reconnaissance saboteur, as a rule, do not know the exact account of the enemy's manpower destroyed by them - in battle there is neither opportunity nor time for this. What can we say about the medical instructor, who has a completely different profile. So 28 beaten "Hans", most likely, were entered in the award list by the regiment headquarters, as they say, "from the bulldozer" - for solidity.
But Valeria, probably, carefully kept an accurate record of the rescued wounded herself - these were the milestones of her front-line glory!
The day when the golden star of the military glory of Valeria Gnarovskaya shone, and the bright star of her life tragically extinguished, was September 23, 1943.
There is a version that this happened while repelling a strong German counterattack, but information about the situation in this sector of the front does not fully confirm this. The 907th Infantry Regiment was conducting offensive hostilities that day in the area of ​​the Ivanenkovo ​​state farm in the Zaporozhye region.
The enemy stubbornly defended and really counterattacked the day before, during the confrontation for the village of Verbovaya, which changed hands several times. However, from the morning of September 23, the offensive in the direction of the Dnieper of the advanced units of the regiment - the infantry company of Captain Romanov (which included the medical officer Gnarovskaya) with the support of an artillery battery - at first developed without hindrance.
However, then the vanguard was ambushed by the Nazis. In the very first minutes of the battle, many killed and wounded appeared, and our heroine fearlessly rushed to where groans and calls for help were heard ...
After a fierce battle, deploying guns on direct fire, the Soviet soldiers managed to knock down the enemy from their positions and continue the offensive.
The wounded remained on the battlefield, for whose help Captain Romanov ordered to leave the medical instructor Gnarovskaya. Knowing the fighting character of our heroine, we can assume that she tried to protest, wishing to remain with her company to the end ... But in the army, as you know, orders are not discussed.
The main forces of the regiment went forward. Valeria and the orderlies left to help her organized an impromptu field medical center, gathered the wounded and, as best they could, tried to alleviate their suffering.
But the evacuation was delayed, which, however, is usual for an offensive battle.
Fortunately for the wounded, the regiment's command post began to unfold nearby, and it was hoped that the regiment itself would order their rescue.
Habitually making bandages, putting injections of anesthetic, habitually repeating words of consolation to the wounded who had become routine for her, Valeria absentmindedly listened to the battle rumbled nearby.
And then the sound intervened, making the blood freeze even among the seasoned Red Army soldiers of 1943. The roar of tank engines and the iron clatter of tracks!
The main and, perhaps, the only source of information about the desperate last fight of our heroine is the award list for her submission to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union from 03/21/1944.
He is as stingy as possible on details:
“Under the Ivanenkovo ​​state farm, 2 enemy tanks of the Tiger type broke through our line of defense - rushed to the location of the regiment's headquarters. At this critical moment, the tanks approached 60-70 meters to the headquarters location. Gnarovskaya, grabbing a bunch of grenades and standing up to her full height, rushed to meet the enemy tank in front and, sacrificing her life, threw herself under the tank.
As a result of the explosion, the tank was stopped, and the second tank ... was knocked out by our soldiers. "
German heavy tanks "Tiger" (Panzerkampfwagen VI "Tiger") in the fall of 1943 were not uncommon on the Eastern Front. However, in fact, these could be Wehrmacht tanks of any other type, or assault guns. “Tigers” simply had to appear in the award list, they are more charismatic! But it doesn't matter - any armored vehicles that went for a walk in the rear posed a great danger.
German tank Pzkpfw VI "Tiger" in battle on the Eastern Front, in the background, it seems, smokes a damaged Soviet "Sudebeker" with a gun on a trailer


Our heroine was not alone against the "panzers" of the enemy. The guards of the regiment's headquarters were fighting, most likely, orderlies and lightly wounded entered the battle.
In the award list, Valeria Gnarovskaya's salvation of the wounded is not mentioned at all. This is understandable: the regiment commander has prioritized the combat value of what the little medical instructor has obscured. The command post of the regiment won.
However, I will express another seditious assumption: if the Hitlerite tank had simply “ironed out” the location of the headquarters, Valeria, most likely, would not have left her defenseless wounded in order to just rush to his defense. Let the guards and staff fight back on their own - the men are healthy and with combat experience!
Obviously, attacking the regiment's headquarters, one of the "panzers" crawled into her makeshift infirmary, onto her wounded ... The unprecedented brutality of the battles on the Eastern Front left no hope that the German tankman would change his course of action.
Although, perhaps, the "Hans" sitting at the levers and his "camarades" simply did not see the wounded. Therefore, Valeria managed to get close to the tank and was not mowed down by a machine-gun burst.
What did a nineteen-year-old girl have against the formidable armored fighting vehicle, the dark creation of the Teutonic weapon genius?
Anti-tank high-explosive grenades, most likely - RG-40, tk. the more advanced RG-43s in the middle of 1943 had just begun to enter the troops.
Hand grenade RG-40

The weight of one is 1.2 kg. A strong and determined girl may well throw her from a relatively safe distance. However, experience showed that against a heavy tank (if, after all, a "Tiger") one RG-40 can do little, except that you can try to shoot down a caterpillar, and then if you are very lucky. The maximum armor penetration of the RG-40 is 40 mm, while the Tiger has a minimum armor of 63 mm.
Therefore, against the Wehrmacht tanks from the first year of the war, Soviet soldiers used a front-line invention - a bunch of several grenades. The problem was that even a stalwart grenade launcher, let alone a young girl, could not throw her far. The maximum throw distance is several meters. Moreover, a serious concussion from an explosion is almost inevitable, even if you hide in a trench after that.
And our heroine, most likely, had nowhere to hide.
Rushing towards the tank - with a bundle of grenades, with grenades folded into a bag - she could only expect to survive by a miracle. But who in war does not believe in miracles? For some reason, it seems that in her last moments in this shining world, Valeria still hoped to survive. By the way, it almost certainly didn’t fit “under the tank” - there was no need.
We will never know if she managed to desperately scream out or barely audibly whisper before that: "I'm not afraid!"
But she probably really wasn't scared: in such a situation, an experienced and brave fighter turns on a completely different perception of danger ...
THEM. Penteshin. Feat of Valeria Gnarovskaya. In my opinion, the most realistic picture depicting the last battle of our heroine


The small figure of the girl was thrown far from the tank by a powerful explosion. Unhappy Valeria died instantly, or almost instantly ...
Whether she destroyed a German tank is a moot point. In such a document, as the award sheet, they would definitely write “damaged”, “destroyed”, if this were the case. “Stopped,” is the streamlined presentation of our heroine for the award. Alas, it is likely that the tank that killed Valeria Gnarovskaya could have crawled out of the battle on its own ... I really hope - not for long!
But the wounded were saved. The girl-medical instructor, who was affectionately called the Swallow, who loved to repeat: "I'm not afraid!" and who once grew indoor flowers, fulfilled her medical duty to these people flawlessly. Saved their lives. In return, he gave his war.
The second tank was knocked out of action by the Red Army armored soldiers Ryndin and Turundin (the names are simply created for one calculation!), Also presented for this battle for government awards.


The offensive often left its dead unburied. Only a few days later, Valeria's body was buried by local residents in a mass grave, in which other soldiers and officers of the 907th rifle regiment who died in this battle lay. A year later, she was reburied with military honors in the park of the Ivanenkovo ​​state farm, which was later given a new name - Gnarovskoe.
The front-line friends of the medical instructor Swallows sincerely mourned her and went ahead - to new battles and, perhaps, to their own death. There was no time to grieve at the front for a long time.
On March 21, 1944, the command of the regiment presented Private Valeria Gnarovskaya to the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union. She was no less worthy of a gold star than other women - field doctors of the Red Army! She received this highest award of the USSR on June 2, 1944. For her feat, and for thousands and thousands of her unfamiliar front-line friends, too many of whom the only award was the tombstone of a soldier's obelisk.
B. Kazakov. Death of a nurse


The posthumous glory of Valeria Gnarovskaya, which brought her granite monuments and perpetuation in honorary names, is too well known to be told about her again.
But it seems that behind the proud words and high honors, a fearless girl is forever lost, who said: "I'm not afraid!" - and with her body covered the wounded from the advancing armor.

Mikhail Kozhemyakin.