Zinaida Portnova was a typical teenager in Belarus, but when the Nazis invaded in 1941, she became a deadly Soviet resistance fighter who would be awarded the nation’s highest honor.
BloomsburyZinaida Portnova when she was 14 .
Zinaida Portnova first unite the Soviet ’s youth resistance after the Nazis invaded Belarus in the summer of 1941 . In less than three years , the youthful fighter aircraft was promoted from go around propaganda leaflets to weaponry and sabotage attacks against the Germans .
In her mid - teens , Portnova carried out one mission after another . In one of her most legendary attacks , she poisoned C of Nazis by infiltrating their camp as a kitchen aide . Later , she was excruciate and vote down by German troops and , after the state of war , was give the deed of conveyance of Hero of the Soviet Union , the country ’s highest accolade .
BloomsburyZinaida Portnova when she was 14.
Zinaida Portnova: The Young Soviet Fighter
Art Media / Print Collector / Getty Images / Ryan StennesAt 16 , Zinaida Portnova joined a group of youthful opposition fighter known as the Young Avengers .
Zinaida Portnova was born on Feb. 20 , 1926 , in the urban center of Leningrad . She was the eldest daughter of a working - class Belarusian family whose sire worked at a local industrial plant and whose younger babe , Galya , was eight years her junior .
In the summertime of 1941 , the 7th - grader and her younger sibling were send to live on with their grandmother in the village of Zui , situated near the town of Obol in northerly Belarus . This was right at the beginning of the Nazi intrusion of the Soviet Union known asOperation Barbarossa .
Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images/Ryan StennesAt 16, Zinaida Portnova joined a group of young resistance fighters known as the Young Avengers.
Beginning on June 22 , 1941 , German force march on 200 miles into Soviet dominion within a week and , within months , 2.5 million Soviet soldier were either stagnant , injured , or missing . The young Zinaida Portnova lastly get face to face with Germany ’s Nazi troop when their advance eventually reached Obol .
According to Henry Sakaida’sHeroines of the Soviet Union 1941 - 45 , when Nazi soldier seek to seize their fellowship ’s cattle , they get into an altercation with Portnova ’s granny and hit her . At that minute , the state of war became personal for the teenage girl , who grew to despise the Germans .
presently , an underground resistance drift against the Nazis began to take shape in Belarus . A year after the Nazis infest Obol , Zinaida Portnova joined the youth arm of the cloak-and-dagger resistor . They were formally called the All - Union Leninist Young Communist League but were well known as the Young Avengers .
Wikimedia CommonsIllustrated stamped envelope of the Soviet Union from 1978 featuring Zinaida Portnova.
The league , consult to as the Komsomol , was a early days - moderate political organisation self-governing of the Soviet ’s Communist Party though it was often described as the party ’s youth partition . After she get together , Portnova , then 16 , quickly became a worthful plus to the resistivity .
She got her starting distribute Soviet propaganda pamphlet around German - occupied Belarus and performing covert mission , include stealing German weapons for Soviet soldiers and spying on German troops . But that was just the beginning ; once she learn how to manage weapons , Zinaida Portnova became involved in sabotage cognitive operation against the Nazis .
Alongside her comrades , Portnova was creditworthy for attacks carry out at numerous position where the Nazis congregated , successfully completing sabotage mission at a local office plant , a pump , and a brick manufacturing plant . These covert procedure were believed to have killed C of national socialist soldiers .
Wikimedia CommonsA monument to Zinaida Portnovа at a former pioneer camp near Togliatti, Russia.
Zinaida Portnova’s Attacks On The Nazis
Wikimedia CommonsIllustrated stamp envelope of the Soviet Union from 1978 feature Zinaida Portnova .
Zinaida Portnova kill plenty of national socialist soldiers during her time as a resistivity combatant . In August 1943 , she conduct out one of her most legendary operations where she infiltrated a German garrison and poisoned its soldier .
She vex as a cooking assistant and successfully infiltrated the kitchen that supplied the local Nazi fort in Obol . As she was prepared meals for the soldiers , Portnova lace them with toxicant do many of the soldiers to fall sick — some even died .
As a young Soviet working in the Nazi ’s kitchen , she was immediately suspected as the culprit behind the flock poisoning but Portnova cleverly sham innocence . To prove she had not poison the intellectual nourishment , she took a bite out of the solid food she cooked . When she showed no strong-arm response to the food , the Nazis resign her .
Portnova quickly fled to her grandmother ’s star sign where she fell poorly — just as the troops had — and her nanna fed her large quantity of whey to counter the poison in her body .
After she did n’t return to work the next day , the Germans get looking for her and Zinaida Portnova became a fugitive . To avoid detection , Portnova bring together a partisan insularism nominate after Kliment Voroshilov , a outstanding Soviet military officer and politician during Stalin ’s principle .
Shewroteher raise a letter month after , saying “ Mom , we are now in a partisan detachment . Together with you , we will kill the Nazi invader . ” She was as effective in carrying out armed rape against the Germans as when she was working with the Young Avengers and was presently attacking Nazi patrol squads meant to round - up the opposition fighters .
Her Lasting Legacy
Wikimedia CommonsA memorial to Zinaida Portnovа at a former trailblazer bivouac near Togliatti , Russia .
In 1944 , Zinaida Portnova was broadcast on a reconnaissance mission mission to the fort from which she had recently escaped as a runaway . The stripling undercover agent ’s object lens was to penetrate the Nazi camp once again and ground the movement behind a failed sabotage military mission . alas , she was found by local police force and captured .
After she was reach over to the Nazis , Portnova experience her only opportunity of survival was to break loose . In a heroic attempt to flee , Portnova grabbed a pistol that was on the desk during her query and shoot her Gestapo interrogator , then she frivol away two more Nazi guards as she made her escapism from the camp .
Portnova quickly ran out into the woods next to the garrison , but sadly , the end come for the new resistance combatant . The Nazis discover her along a nearby river and took her to Goryany , where she was interrogated and savagely torture . Later , they take up Zinaida Portnova out into the forest , where she was put to death by gunshot , about a month shy of her 18th natal day .
Zinaida Portnova contributed so much during her metre as part of the Soviet ’s resistance that on July 1 , 1958 , Portnova was posthumously awarded the deed of “ Hero of the Soviet Union , ” defecate her theyoungest female person everawarded the Soviet Union ’s eminent honour . She was later awarded the Holy Order of Lenin as well .
Decades after her death at the hand of Nazis , the teenager ’s name is still revered by many ; plaques and monument in her honour can be find in a number of Russian towns , including in the city of Minsk , and many of Russia’sYoung Pioneer groupswere named in her honor .
In her destruction , Portnova joined the ranks of other brave Soviet women later honored for their Robert William Service , such asMariya Oktyabrskaya , Roza Shanina , andLepa Radić .
Now that you ’ve learned about Zinaida Portnova , the teenaged Soviet fighter who became the young female to experience the country ’s highest honor , record about the all - female World War II squadron have it off asThe Night Witches . Next , take the incredible story ofHans And Sophie Scholl ’s White Rose movementthat fight against the Nazis .
