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Mariya Oktyabrskaya
(1905-1944)
The Tank-Driving Widow
When the stars are all burned out and human beings are but fairy tales told by robots, somewhere there will be a list of the toughest women who ever lived. And near the top will be Sergeant Mariya Oktyabrskaya, the first women to win the Hero of the Soviet Union Award, and her tank, Fighting Girlfriend.
During World War II, her army officer husband Ilya was killed in action. In response, Mariya sold literally all of their belongings in order to buy a tank. She then wrote Stalin the following letter:
“My husband was killed in action defending the motherland. I want revenge on the fascist dogs for his death and for the death of Soviet people tortured by the fascist barbarians. For this purpose I’ve deposited all my personal savings – 50,000 rubles – to the National Bank in order to build a tank. I kindly ask to name the tank ‘Fighting Girlfriend’ and to send me to the frontline as a driver of said tank.”
Stalin wrote back pretty quickly and said yes.
“I kindly ask to name the tank ‘Fighting Girlfriend’ and to send me to the frontline as a driver of said tank.”
On her first outing in the tank, she outmaneuvered the German soldiers, killing around thirty of them and taking out an anti-tank gun. When they shelled her tank, immobilizing Fighting Girlfriend, she got out — in the middle of a firefight — and repaired the damn thing. She then got back in and proceeded to kill more Germans.
During all this, she wrote a letter to her sister describing her time in the war. She told her “I’ve had my baptism by fire. I beat the bastards. Sometimes I’m so angry I can’t even breathe.”
In the end, she was taken out by a mortar round when she got out of her tank in the middle of yet another firefight to fix Fighting Girlfriend. She was awarded the highest honor in the Soviet Military and is buried in one of the nation’s most sacred cemeteries.
(enjoy the art? you can get it as a poster, shirt or phone case!)Art Notes
- That’s roughly what her outfit would have looked like, depending on the time of year.
- The model of tank depicted is a T34 tank, the actual one that Fighting Girlfriend was.
- The German soldiers used many different color tracer rounds, but red was among them.
- The planes in the background are PE-8 Petlyakov Soviet bombers.
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that soviet war period alone could be source material for loads of rejected princesses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_women_in_World_War_II ” Nearly 200,000 were decorated and 89 eventually received the Soviet Union’s highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union. Some served as pilots,[2] snipers, machine gunners, tank crew members and partisans, as well as in auxiliary roles.[3]”
remember that gushing about chris kyle dude from american sniper movie with 160 confirmed kills?
well, this woman did double that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko#World_War_II “Her total of confirmed kills during World War II was 309,[2][3] including 36 enemy snipers.”
Two notes on the art. (I’m a bit of a WWII nerd.)
1) The hull machine gun sticks out so far that it’d be pretty much impossible to sit like that, unless she had her right leg hooked over the gun, or the gun is behind her (traversed all the way to the left) and she’s leaning on it (which I suspect is the case)
2) Which variant of the T-34? The two most notable ones are the initial versions (with a 76mm gun) and the T-34-85 (with an 85mm gun to rival the Tiger’s 88mm gun). The latter had to have a redesigned turret to hold the gun, and it’s hard to tell which type the drawing is. Your T-34 turret seems to be as large as the 85mm version but it appears to be shaped like the 76mm version. (I might just be blind on this one, since I’ve never actually seen either version up close.)
This is a great bio-I’d love to use it to refute what this guy has said about women in the military.
1) Totally. I freely admit I just left out the machine gun in the art notes. I think the actual pose is technically impossible. :)
2) Unsure which variant. I found a low-res 3d model online that appeared to be more or less correct, and used it as reference to draw Fighting Girlfriend. :)
Unsure who you’re talking about — the link didn’t come through! As for women in the military… well, if anyone doubts they exist, I have a list of around 500 women dating back to 15th century BCE that begs to differ.
Oops, here’s the link and the video: CAN’T CUT THE MUSTARD -Terrence Popp
My respect to these women who died defending their country, they did it for their countrymen not Stalin,that is something that everyone should learn
,and remember.when people read about these beautiful and fascinating women.
HATE IS A POWERFUL WEAPON “I KNOW IT WELL”
I think she’s next week!
Even heard about some Finnish sniper the Soviets nicknamed “Bela Smertch”? ;-)
I’m guessing you’re talking about Simo Hayha. He’s an impressive guy. I don’t find his story as relatable or human as Pavlichenko’s, but he’s got a neat resume.
How do we know it is real?