Background
Kosmodemianskaia, Zoia was born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osinovye Gai, Tambov Oblast’.
Kosmodemianskaia, Zoia was born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osinovye Gai, Tambov Oblast’.
Educated at a Moscow secondary school.
Member of the Komsomol, 1938. Volunteered for partisan service during World War II. Sent to the rear of the German forces near Moscow in autumn 1941. Almost immediately seized by the Germans and executed (hanged), allegedly making a heroic defiant speech under the gallows.
Despite her very short military career and the relatively minor importance of her mission (to set fire to some German cavalry stables), turned into a cult figure of almost Joan of Arc proportions.