The Russians were now becoming skilled in the execution of the sustained all arms offensive. Their troops were now more experienced and better equipped with simple and effective weaponry. Their overwhelming resources of manpower and determination to rid the Motherland of the hated German invader were beginning to exact a heavy cost on the German army.
Train of Tsar Nicholas II, c. 1902. Via: www.retronaut.co
Zoya Kosmodemjanskaja was born on the 14th of September 1923 and belonged to the Diversionsabteilung no. 9903 of the Soviet secret police (NKVD), which ran some 400 agents.
On the night of the 27th of November 1941, Zoya, together with two comrades, set fire to a building in the village of Petrischtschewo near Moscow. German soldiers quickly caught one of them - Wassilij Klubkow. Under interrogation he betrayed Zoya. She was arrested and tortured before being sentenced to hang.
Eighteen year old Zoya was executed near Moscow, on the 29th of November 1941. Round her neck was hung a sign describing the reason for her execution. Just before she was pushed off the stack of boxes they had placed under the simple gallows, she told the soldiers, “You can’t hang all 190 million of us.” Her partly clothed body was left to rot in the snow.
Russian medic salvages weapons from fallen comrades.
Russian forces in Grozny, Chechnya.
A Russian prisoner is treated for his wounds by Wehrmacht soldiers.
