“It’s scary to imagine such an end”: the story of a girl-sniper Tatyana Baramzina caught by the Germans

Speaking about the soldiers of Great Patriotic War , first of all, you imagine strong, courageous men, often pushing no less courageous women into the background. And this is not entirely correct: among women there were also many selfless personalities who, without hesitation, sacrificed themselves in the name of victory. I want to talk about one of this girl in my article.
Soviet girl sniper - Tatyana Baramzina is one of them.

The future Hero of the Soviet Union was born in 1919 in the USSR in the family of a machinist. The family had many children, and only the father was engaged in earnings, so Tatyana's childhood can hardly be called rosy. Moreover, at one time both parents were engaged in the trade in bread, which had a rather negative impact on the future life of the family, since merchants were not favored in the young Soviet state.

It got to the point where they were disenfranchised, the restoration of which her mother, with great difficulty, achieved after only a few years, and even then only for herself.

However, despite all the difficulties, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, the girl grew up cheerful and friendly, she loved sports very much, especially swimming. She did not forget to help with the housework, as there were many children in the family.

In 1933 she entered the Pedagogical School. It seemed that the girl's life was predetermined: her profession was to be working with children. Tatyana was happy about this, she loved children, so after graduating from college and entering, later in 1940 at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, she simultaneously got a job as a teacher in a kindergarten.

By this time, she already had experience working with kids, since between the school and the institute she managed to work at school.

However, she realized her main passion later.

Tatyana received the news of the beginning of the war with great excitement. An irrepressible desire to take part in hostilities immediately awakened in the girl’s heart, and she, without hesitation, submitted documents to the military registration and enlistment office.

But the young girl was refused. There was a great shortage of medical personnel, schools were opened that trained nurses externally. Tatyana was offered to enter one of these, explaining that by learning how to properly provide first aid to the wounded, she can be much more useful than simply dying on the front line due to inexperience. The girl agreed.
At the beginning of 1943, having already completed all the courses, she was offered to enter the women's sniper school.

For the first time in her life, a young woman picked up a rifle and ... realized that she was only now realizing her true destiny.

Eyewitnesses say that from the first days of training, she began to show brilliant results. Everyone noted that the girl literally merged with the weapon together, together they represented a frightening picture. Tatyana herself felt how she changes when she picks up a rifle, that only one desire appears inside - to quickly apply her skills. After graduation, she was sent to the front. There, with her professional actions, she quickly earned respect from her senior comrades. Well, when the number of destroyed Nazis amounted to 16 people, they began to talk about her on the enemy side.

At the same time, those around never noticed the semblance of some kind of gloating on the part of Tatyana. On the contrary, when there were short breaks between maneuvers and battles, and the soldiers gathered together and whiled away the time talking, the girl often remembered her parents, life in her hometown and work at school. Letters that Tatyana wrote to her mother and sisters, amazing in their content, have come down to us. Here is a snippet from one of them:
"... Greetings from the front. My dear mother, Nata, Lyalya! Arrived at the front on April 3. They met us well. On April 8, I got to the front line for the first time. That day I killed 2 fascists. At first, my hands were shaking and my heart was beating, but soon everything went away, and there was a desire to beat and beat the enemies as much as possible... We leave for the mission at 3 o'clock in the morning... Mom, don't worry about me, everything is going well. Greetings, Tanya!"

Tatyana received the main blow from a completely different side from where she could have expected it. Somehow, during the next sortie, she carefully, from an ambush, began to observe through the scope for the suspicious movements of the bushes in front. But she could not see anything because of a sudden cloudy spot in her eye. After a while, the stain disappeared, and Tatyana saw two Germans right in front of her. Hastily eliminating the enemy, the girl returned to the camp, but restless thoughts did not go out of her head.
The premonition turned out to be prophetic. After some time, clouding in the eyes recurred, and a little later it became completely permanent. For the girl, this was a real blow. It became quite clear to her that it would be necessary to forget about sniper activity.

The authorities were adamant and insisted that Baramzina leave the front. But for her it was unacceptable. With great difficulty, she managed to persuade her to leave her as a signalman with the duty of a nurse.
The girl felt that she had not yet accomplished her main feat. And it turned out to be right.
In early July 1944, Tatyana, as part of her group, was transferred behind enemy lines to perform the most difficult combat mission: to capture the main road junction and hold it until the arrival of the main forces. To fulfill the order, it was necessary to gain a foothold in the area of the village of Pekalin.
A small detachment of Soviet soldiers approached the indicated settlement and unexpectedly encountered a fascist unit, far outnumbering them. A battle ensued, as a result of which our soldiers were gradually pushed back to the forest. Tatyana, under incessant fire, didn't stop helping the wounded for a second, and then a rifle thrown by someone caught her eye. Without thinking, she picked up a weapon and fired all the available cartridges at the enemy.
But the forces were too unequal. A detachment of Soviet fighters was almost completely destroyed. The remnants of the detachment were divided into two parts: some retreated to the forest, while others, along with the wounded - Tatyana was among them - took refuge in a kind of dugout, not far from the village.
Those who remained in the dugout were destroyed. Our brave sniper didn't escape the terrible fate.

When the cartridges ran out, she continued to throw grenades at the enemy, holding out in this way for more than an hour.

But now the ammunition ran out, and the Nazis grabbed the rebellious woman. The Nazis, infuriated that several of their comrades were shot and blown up by some girl, gave her a real hell.
She was only 25 years old ...
From the memoirs of Alexander Danilovich Martynchuk, the commander of the mortar company of the 70th Infantry Division:
"We returned to the village to the site of the last battle. Tanya lay covered in blood, disfigured, stabbed with bayonets. Killed fascists were lying around ... "

They identified Tatyana only by fragments of clothing and a piece of hair .

Shortly before the end of the war, the brave girl was posthumously awarded two of the highest awards of the Soviet Union.

The main feat of the girl lies precisely in her heroic self-sacrifice. Tanya had every opportunity to escape through the rye, along with the remnants of the landing force, into the forest and stay alive. But she simply couldnot leave her wounded and watch from afar how her helpless fellow soldiers were being killed. And she remained in that dugout, shooting back to the last bullet, to the last grenade ...