The Tank Driver Who Avenged Her Husband by Killing Nazis

History, Feminism

You wouldn’t want to meet this woman on the battlefield

Though women contributed much to the Second World War (particularly on the home front), the overwhelming majority of soldiers were men.

The Soviet army was no exception, but there was one woman who brushed aside expectation and threw herself into combative action:

Mariya Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya.

Mariya developed an interest in military matters after marrying her husband in 1925.

She went against the stereotypes of the time and engaged in all manner of activities. As well as enjoying reading and studying, she knew how to handle revolvers and machine guns. Mariya was also an amateur member of the Red Army and would sing Russian folk songs to the soldiers.

But her life took a tragic turn in August 1941 when her husband was killed in action whilst in Kyiv (the capital of Ukraine).

Enraged and saddened by her husband’s death, Mariya wrote the following letter to Stalin:

After a lengthy training program, Mariya graduated in October 1943 from the Omsk Tank School and joined the 26th Guards Tank Regiment. In accordance with her letter to Stalin, the phrase “Fighting Girlfriend” was painted on her tank.

Initially, her male colleagues thought she was a bit of a joke; they saw her desire to avenge her husband as a publicity stunt. But their opinions changed when they saw her in action.

During her maiden battle with “Fighting Girlfriend” in the city of Smolensk, she overwhelmed the German soldiers, killing about thirty of them. And when her tank was damaged…

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