If my blogs on women warriors seem to lean heavily on Russian women, that is because as I explained earlier, Russian women participated in combat in much larger numbers than women in any other countries. The tradition of using women in combat seems to go back quite a bit in Russian history and the first significant number of women serving in combat took place during World War One. But it was nothing compared to what took place during World War Two.
During World War Two, roughly 800,000 to 1 million women served in one form or another. The numbers are a bit fuzzy because there were no accurate figures kept on irregular or partisan forces, and many women served as partisans.
Initially there was resistance in some areas to have women serve in combat, but as the situation became more and more desperate and manpower shortages became acute, that resistance began to fade. Female units were formed both in infantry and armor. I've already mentioned the three female fighter pilot regiments in the earlier blog. There were, however, women who flew bombers as well, integrated into regular air force units. The infantry and armor units were not integrated but kept separate. Snipers, however, who were part of the infantry, were integrated into male units. There were a number of accomplished women tank commanders in armor, and in infantry, several machine- gunners gained fame during the war. Manshuk Mametova, a young woman from Kazakhstan was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union (equivalent to our Medal of Honor) for her heroic performance in combat. Like female snipers, women machine-gunners seem to excel in their performance and operating the machinegun. In all, 89 women were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union Medal during World War Two!
Although Russian women excelled in uniform service as pilots, tank commanders, machine-gunners, etc., it was as partisan that they really made a huge impact. Unlike in uniform service, the guerrilla or partisan units had a much higher ratio of women. That made sense, because most men of military age were already in uniform. Men were inducted or drafted into military service, women were not. So, when the war started to go badly, and that was right from the start, many young women took to the hills and joined the partisans rather than staying in their villages and towns that were occupied by the enemy.
Like the young and beautiful Roza Shanina who became the face of Russian women snipers, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became the face of the Russian women partisans. Zoya became the first woman to be awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union. The beautiful teenager was 18 when she joined the partisans after witnessing the cruelty of German SS troops in her town. During her short career as a partisan, she performed some very important missions but was caught by the SS. She was raped, beaten, and stripped naked in the middle of the winter to be executed in the town square. Through all the torture and rape, she did not divulge a single piece of information. The SS paraded her naked through the town, in front of her mother and relatives, before they hanged her in the town square. The incredibly brave teenager did not cry or otherwise break down, instead, before she was executed, she shouted defiantly, "You can't kill us all!" Her act and her words became the battle cry for the partisans, sort of like Nathan Hale's, "Give me liberty or give me death!"
Another teenager, Zinaida Portnova was all of 15 when she joined the partisans! Just think about it, she would have been a sophomore in high school! Zinaida fought as a partisan for 3 years before she too was captured by the SS, raped and tortured, and executed on her 18th birthday! She too was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union. There were many others like Zinaida and Zoya. What these young women did, all of them (from fighter pilots to snipers and partisans), was to establish a proud tradition of women warriors in Russia, not something that dated back to ancient times, mixed with folklore and shrouded in legend, but something that was more recent, factual, very visible and with photographic and documentary proof of heroism and accomplishments.
Today there are approximately 100,000 to 150,000 women serving in the Russian military. They range from pilots to tank drivers, to administrative duties. Except for assignment to SPETNAZ, the Russian Special Forces, women serve in all capacities including as infantry soldiers in paratroop and marine units. Interestingly, women soldiers compete in "Miss Army" contest annually, a beauty contest! The winner is awarded the title plus a monetary prize and appears on cheesecake posters and television talk shows! The Russian army says that they hold these contests for morale purposes and to dispel any ideas that Russian female soldiers are masculine, "Valkyrie-like" women, an image that is often portrayed by the western media.
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