Anna Afanasyevna Morozova

(1921-1944)

spy, underground worker,

Hero Soviet Union(posthumously)

She was born on May 23, 1921 in a peasant family in the village of Polyany, Mosalsky District, Kaluga Region. Since 1936 she lived in the territory of the Bryansk region. Graduated from 8 classes high school, courses for accountants, in June 1944 - courses for military radio operators. Once surrounded, she escaped captivity and returned to the village of Sescha.

Working in Seshche at a German air base, she obtained information about the enemy, organized sabotage related to mining enemy aircraft and disabling military equipment. The intelligence obtained by Anna helped to defeat the airbase garrison, destroy 200 aircrew and 38 vehicles. For these exploits, Anna Afanasievna was awarded the medal "For Courage".

Behind enemy lines on the territory of East Prussia and Poland, she showed courage, bravery, and competence in matters of military affairs. As a radio correspondent, Anna regularly went into radio contact with the Center, transmitting valuable information about the enemy, which allowed Soviet aviation to deliver accurate strikes.

From December 30, 1944, A. Morozova was a fighter of the special sabotage and reconnaissance group of Captain Chernykh, abandoned on the territory of Poland. Anna, (a radio operator with the call sign “Swan”) went on the air three times that day, transmitting information from the reconnaissance group to the Center. In the afternoon, she, as part of the Soviet-Polish unit, relocates in the direction of Plock. However, few reached the end point of the route.

On the morning of December 31, scouts and partisans stopped (after a 14-hour forced march) to rest on a farm 40 km from Warsaw and were suddenly attacked by the SS. Sergeant A. Morozova broke through to the forest in a group of Polish partisans. Already at the very forest, an enemy explosive bullet shattered the wrist of his left hand. The Polish partisans did not abandon the bleeding Russian girl. They grabbed her by the arms and carried the radio.

Together we reached the village of Dzechevo. Seeing the wounded woman, one of the local peasant women, the mother of three children, invited her to take refuge in her house. However, the girl decided not to endanger the Polish family, the Germans would have shot everyone. Anna followed the partisans into the forest and further to the shore, the ice-free winter river Vkra.

Anna's death was witnessed by a tar smoker - Pavel Yankovsky. He was hiding in a swamp, a little to the side, and survived only thanks to a Soviet intelligence officer.

According to him, to Anna, covered with branches, the punishers were led out by two service dogs walking on the trail. With aimed shots from the captured "Walter", the girl laid down three fascists on the spot. Then she threw one of the two available lemons. Both dogs were wounded by shrapnel. Having shot the clip, Anna tore out the pin of the grenade with her teeth. Having waited for the Nazis to come closer, she blew herself up along with them ...

The feat of the radio operator also lies in the fact that she managed to destroy the secret radio ciphers that were with her so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy.

For special merits, courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 Anna Morozova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (1965).

In June 1966, the Soviet intelligence officer was posthumously awarded the Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 2nd class, by the Polish state.
Anna was buried in Poland, east of the city of Plock, in the village of Radzanowo. The name of the heroine is the local school.

In the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory, in 1965, Soviet television showed the multi-part television film "We Call Fire on Ourselves", which is often called the first Soviet television series. Its plot was built around the activities of an international underground group at a German airfield located in the town of Sescha. The main character of the film was Anya Morozova, who became the head of the underground.

The film was an incredible success. The spectators watched the action with bated breath. It wasn't just a great game actress Lyudmila Kasatkina, who played the role of Anya Morozova, not only in a brilliant work directed by Sergei Kolosov. At that time, the theme of the war was close and understandable to everyone, and even the smallest falsehood was immediately detected by the audience.

There was no falsehood in “Calling Fire on Ourselves”, since the creators of the picture practically did not have to invent anything. The film is based on the story of the same name written by writer Ovid Gorchakov. Gorchakov himself during the war years was the head of a reconnaissance group behind enemy lines and wrote about what he knew well.

The story of Anna Morozova was documentary - she really led an underground group in Sesche. But Lyudmila Kasatkina, who played her in the film, was about 40 years old at the time of filming. The underground worker Morozova turned 21 in 1942.

Accountant from Seshchi

Anna Morozova was born on May 23, 1921 in the village of Polyany, Mosalsky district, Kaluga province, into a peasant family. Then, together with her parents, she moved to Bryansk, and then to the small town of Sescha.

Here she graduated from 8 classes, then accounting courses and began to work in her specialty. There were five children in the Morozov family, Anya is the eldest, and she needed to help her parents.

In the 1930s, a military airfield for heavy aviation was built in Sesche, after which the aviation unit was relocated to it. Anna Morozova worked in this part before the war.

The rapid German offensive at the beginning of the war led to the capture of Seshcha. The Nazi command, having appreciated the Soviet airfield, placed there the base of the 2nd air fleet of the fascist Air Force, interacting with the troops of the Center group. There were up to 300 German bombers at the base. Bombings were carried out from Seshcha on Moscow.

The zone within a radius of 5 kilometers was transferred by the Germans to a special position. The Nazis intended to ensure the safety of the air base from the actions of partisans.

It seemed that Sescha had been turned by the Germans into impregnable fortress. But in this fortress still managed to find flaws.

Accountant Morozova left with them during the retreat of the Soviet troops. But then she returned - confused, frightened, like other refugees who did not manage to get to their own, ahead of the Nazi offensive. When checking, the former accountant of the military unit spoke frankly about her previous work and did not arouse suspicion among the Germans. A 20-year-old girl who wants to return to her mother as soon as possible - which one is a spy?

International Brigade behind enemy lines

Anna was allowed to settle in Seshche, where she got a job as a laundress for the Nazis. Her pre-war friends worked with her: Pasha Bakutina, Lucy Senchilina,Tanya Vasenkova, Lida Korneeva.

Neither the Gestapo nor their accomplices from among the local collaborators could have imagined that this company of laughing girls was an underground group collecting information about the German air base and transmitting it through the partisans to Moscow.

Anna Morozova kept in touch first with the 1st Kletnyanskaya Partisan Brigade, and then with the reconnaissance group of the 10th Army Western front. The curators knew her under the pseudonym Reseda.

Initially, Reseda was an assistant the head of the Seschinsky underground Konstantin Povarov, acting under the guise of a police officer, and after his death she led the underground.

It was a very dangerous job: any mistake could lead to the disclosure of the entire group and the death of its members.

To obtain accurate information about what is happening directly at the airfield, people were needed who had access there. As airfield workers, the Germans used Poles mobilized into auxiliary troops. The girls from Morozova's group got to know the Poles and cautiously led them to talk about their attitude towards the Nazis. As a result, it turned out that the Poles hate the Nazis and are ready to fight against them. So the group of Anna Morozova had a "Polish link": Yanom Mankovsky, Stefan Gorkevich, Vaclav Messiash,Jan Tyma.

The Poles not only supplied information - they were able to create a guidance post at the airfield for Soviet aircraft that attacked the German airbase.

By the autumn of 1942 Soviet pilots bombed the airfield almost every flying night. In total, about 2.5 thousand air bombs were dropped on the base, dozens of enemy aircraft were destroyed, runways and logistics facilities were destroyed.

The Czechs also joined the group of Anna Morozova: Wendelin Roblichka, who served as a corporal in the German headquarters, and his compatriot Gern Rubert, a signalman at the airfield. The first gave the Poles passwords, thanks to which they could penetrate any part of the airfield, the second reported information about where German planes were flying and how many of them did not return from the mission.

Reseda becomes the Swan

The international underground in Seshche acted boldly. Following the guidance of Soviet aviation, the underground fighters switched to direct sabotage. Receiving magnetic mines from the partisan brigade, the Poles at the airfield put them in the bomb bays of bombers flying on a mission. So 26 Nazi planes were destroyed.

The German command understood that an underground was operating in Seshche. The Gestapo managed to identify individual members of the group, who were executed after torture, but it was not possible to completely defeat the Morozova group.

Monument to the Soviet-Polish-Czechoslovak underground. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

In September 1943, Soviet troops liberated Sescha. The history of the underground group of Anna Morozova ended. At the headquarters of the 10th Army, she was awarded the medal "For Courage".

At 22, Anna Morozova has done more for her country than many in her long life. Everyday risk, life on the verge of death - she had every right to return to peaceful life, especially since there was a lot of work in Seshche to restore the destroyed economy.

But Anna asked to go to the school of radio operators in order to continue the fight against the enemy.

She was sent to the school of intelligence of the Red Army, after which she was included in the special group "Jack" as a radio operator. Received Morozov and a new pseudonym - Swan.

"Forest Ghosts"

Group "Jack" in the summer of 1944 was abandoned in East Prussia. Reconnaissance had to be carried out in difficult conditions: without the help of the local population and with the constant persecution of the Nazis, who sought to eliminate the group in their deep rear as soon as possible.

The information obtained by the "Jack" group and transmitted by radio by Lebed was of great importance. But the scouts paid for this information with their lives. The Germans called paratroopers "forest ghosts". The scouts, who suffered from hunger, illness and terrible fatigue, really looked like ghosts. Their situation was rapidly deteriorating.

In November, the Jack group, due to the impossibility of continuing operations in East Prussia, requested permission to cross into Poland. Such permission was given, but only four scouts managed to leave the territory of East Prussia. Among them was Anna Morozova.

On the territory of Poland, the "Jack" group established contact with the Polish partisans and resumed activities. But on December 27, 1944, punishers attacked their trail. Of the entire group, only Lebed managed to survive after this battle.

From the radiogram of Anna Morozova dated December 30, 1944: “To the Center from Lebed. Three days ago, the SS men suddenly attacked the dugout. According to the Poles, the Germans captured Pavel Lukmanov, he could not stand the torture and betrayed us. The Frenchman died silently. Jay was immediately wounded in the chest. She told me: "If you can, tell your mother that I did my best, died well." And she shot herself. Gladiator and Mole were also wounded and left, shooting back in one direction, I in the other. Breaking away from the SS, she went to the village to the Poles, but all the villages were occupied by the Germans. For three days she wandered through the forest until she came across scouts from Captain Chernykh's special group. The fate of the Gladiator and the Mole could not be established.

She fought to the end

Morozova joined the special sabotage and reconnaissance group of the intelligence department of the 2nd Belorussian Front of the Guards Captain Chernykh, abandoned on the territory of Poland in the rear of the East Prussian group of enemy troops in November 1944. On December 30, the radio operator Morozova transmitted to the Center the information obtained by the Cherny group.

A group of scouts was ordered to redeploy from the area of ​​​​the city of Pshasnysh in the vicinity of Plock in order to hide there in the floodplains of the Vkra River. The Black group moved along with the Polish partisans Lieutenant Cherny - Ignacy Sedlikha. On December 31, 1944, after a 14-hour march, the partisans and scouts stopped to rest near the Novaya Ves farm. But here they were again overtaken by the SS. He got into a fight, during which Anna Morozova was seriously injured - a bullet crushed the wrist of her left hand. Polish partisans helped her get to the Vkra River. The river had to be crossed by swimming, but the wounded radio operator could not do this.

A Pole from a nearby village agreed to hide Anna at home, but she refused - if she had been found during the search, the Nazis would have shot both her and the peasant with his entire family.

Two elderly Polish tar-burners, who worked in the area where the partisans fled from the punishers, decided to hide Lebed. They placed it behind the swamp in the vineyard.

The partisans expected to return for the radio operator. But the dogs of the punishers led the pursuers straight to the shelter of the wounded scout. One of the resin workers Mecheslav Novitsky, captured nearby, the Germans shot. Second, Pavel Yankovsky managed to hide. He witnessed what happened next.

The Nazis offered Morozova to surrender, but she threw a grenade in response. This explosion killed two dogs and wounded one of the punishers. The swan fired back to the last, destroying two more pursuers. Finally, the shots stopped. When the Germans approached the radio operator, Anna Morozova blew them up with her last grenade.

Only a few hours remained before the onset of the victorious 1945.

Grave of Anna Morozova. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Award twenty years later

In his book, Ovid Gorchakov wrote that after the mutilated body of the deceased intelligence officer was delivered to the nearest Polish village, the SS officer who commanded the operation forced his soldiers to march in front of the murdered girl, paying tribute to her courage and stamina.

Anna Morozova was buried in Radzanowo, 12 kilometers east of the Polish city of Plock.

For the first time, her feat became widely known after an article written by Ovid Gorchakov in 1959. In the early 1960s, he helped Gorchakov write the book “Calling Fire on Ourselves” veteran of the Polish Army Janusz Przymanowski, who is also known as the author of the story "Four Tankers and a Dog", which became the basis for the famous series.

The work of Gorchakov and Pshimanovsky, and then Kolosov and Kasatkina, helped restore historical justice. After the show of the series “Calling Fire on Ourselves”, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, public organizations appealed to the leadership of the USSR with a proposal to award Anna Morozova the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 8, 1965, Anna Afanasyevna Morozova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command and for her courage and heroism in battles against the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War. The Polish People's Republic awarded Anna Morozova with the Order of the Cross of Grunwald, II degree.

In Seshche today, no one is left alive who remembers how the local underground fought against the Nazis during the war years. But the military airfield is still operating, on which the air regiment of military transport aviation is based, the pilots of which fly the An-124 Ruslan and Il-76.

April 28, 2011 Sescha was awarded the honorary title of the Bryansk region "Village of partisan glory."

BORN in the Smolensk region. But she grew up and provided
died herself here, in the Bryansk region.
... The Great Patriotic War caught Anya Morozo-
wu in Sesche. She performed more than modest duties
ness of a clerk, and then an accountant-accountant.
Soon Anya leaves Seshcha for the rear. Only leaves not-
for a long time. In the winter of forty-two, she returned. returned
with a task received on the mainland ...
Now the girlish hands are no longer holding a pen, but linen. Anya
works as a laundress for pilots based in Sesche. RU-
ki work for the Nazis, mind and heart - for the Motherland,
fallen into trouble. One is hard. The scout is looking for
connection with the partisans. With the help of reliable people
attracts Czechs, Poles to an underground group, working
Shih at an enemy airfield. Through them it obtains light
information about the air base, its equipment, organizes sabotage
to blow up aircraft and other enemy equipment.
By denunciation! Seschenskaya group Soviet aviation
delivered the most accurate bombing strikes on the airbase. BUT
Kletnyansky partisans defeated the enemy garrison and
destroyed up to 200 soldiers and officers from among the flight
composition.
After the release of Sescha, Anya Morozova studied at
scout school. She met her death far away -
in Poland. The girl blew herself up with a grenade, but the enemy did not
gave up.
For the heroism and courage shown in the fight against the
gom, Anna Afanasievna Morozova posthumously awarded
title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On the eve of the celebration of the Day of Partisans and Underground Workers in Poland, representatives of the Poland-East Cooperation Society and the commune of Sementkovo, headed by the Deputy of the Society, Zdzislaw Jatsashek, laid flowers and lit lamps at the grave and place of death of our fellow countrywoman, head of the international underground organization of the Hero of the Soviet Union Anna Morozova.

Morozova Anna Afanasievna (1921 - 1944), Hero of the Soviet Union (1965).

Anna Afanasievna Morozova was born on May 23, 1921 in the village of Polyany, Mosalsky District, Kaluga Region, into a peasant family. She lived in Bryansk, then in the village of Sescha, Dubrovsky District. After graduation, she worked as an accountant.

From May 1942 to September 1943 A.A. Morozova led an underground international Soviet-Polish-Czechoslovak organization in the village of Sescha. Delivered valuable information about the enemy, organized sabotage to blow up aircraft. On the basis of her data, on June 17, 1942, the partisans defeated the garrison in the village of Sergeevka, destroying 200 aircrew and 38 vehicles. After the liberation of the region, A. Morozova joined the ranks of the Soviet Army, graduated from the school of radio operators. It was abandoned on the territory of Poland, was in the Soviet-Polish detachment. On December 31, 1944, in a battle near the city of Plock, she was wounded and, in order not to be captured, blew herself up with a grenade.

She was buried in the village of Radzanovo, 12 km. east of Plock (Poland).

The feat of the Seshchinsky underground and A.A. Morozova is dedicated to the serial television film "We Call Fire on Ourselves." Monuments were erected in the city of Mosalsk and the village of Sescha. Streets in Bryansk, Sesche, Zhukovka, Dubrovka, Mosalsk are named after her.

During the Great Patriotic War, from May 1942 to September 1943, Komsomol member Anna Morozova was the head of the international Soviet-Polish-Czechoslovak underground organization in the village of Sescha as part of the 1st Kletnyanskaya partisan brigade.
After the liberation of Sescha, Anna Morozova graduated from radio telegraph courses, underwent special training, and in July 1944, as part of the Jack sabotage and reconnaissance group, she was abandoned in East Prussia. Operating in difficult conditions, the group suffered heavy losses. There was a real hunt for paratroopers. The raids did not stop day or night. But the group continued to operate, conducted reconnaissance, took languages, sent ciphers to the Center.
Suffering losses, the "Jack" group crossed into the Polish territory occupied by the Germans. Since the end of 1944, Anna Morozova was a member of the joint Soviet-Polish partisan detachment. On December 31, 1944, she was wounded in battle and, in order not to be captured, blew herself up with a grenade. Buried in locality Grazanowo-Kostelnoe (Poland).
The exploits of A. Morozova and her comrades are dedicated to the story of O. Gorchakov and Y. Pshimanovsky “We Call Fire on Ourselves” (1960), the serial television film “We Call Fire on Ourselves” (1965), the television feature film “Parachutes on Trees” (1973) .

Anna Afanasyevna Morozova(May 23, 1921 - December 31, 1944) - Hero of the Soviet Union, intelligence officer, leader of an underground organization.

Biography

Anna Afanasievna Morozova was born on May 23, 1921 in the village of Polyany, Mosalsky District, Kaluga Region, into a peasant family. Russian.

She lived in the city of Bryansk, then in the village of Sescha, Dubrovsky District, Bryansk Region. She graduated from the 8th grade of school and accounting courses. She worked in her specialty.

During the Great Patriotic War, from May 1942 to September 1943, Morozova led the underground Soviet-Polish-Czechoslovak international organization in the village of Sescha as part of the 1st Kletnyanskaya partisan brigade. She obtained valuable information about the enemy, organized sabotage to blow up aircraft and disable another military equipment. Having received magnetic mines from the partisan brigade, they mined and blew up twenty aircraft, six railway echelons, and two ammunition depots.

On the basis of her intelligence data, on June 17, 1942, the partisans defeated the garrison of an enemy air base in the village of Sergeevka, destroying 200 flight personnel, 38 vehicles.

In September 1943, having left the underground, she entered Soviet Army. In June 1944 she graduated from the courses of radio operators. As a fighter of the reconnaissance group "Jack" of the reconnaissance department of the headquarters of the 10th Army, she was abandoned on the territory of East Prussia. A well-established warning system and the inability to hide for a long time in cultivated forest plantations led to the death of numerous reconnaissance groups thrown in to reconnoiter the fortification system.

Suffering losses, the Jack group crossed into the Polish territory occupied by the Germans, from the end of 1944 A. Morozova was in the joint Soviet-Polish partisan detachment. On December 31, 1944, in a battle near the city of Plock, she was wounded and, in order not to be captured, blew herself up with a grenade.

She was buried in the village of Radzanowo, 12 km east of the city of Plock.

On February 16, 1965, on the first television program, the first Soviet television series (4 episodes) "We call fire upon ourselves" directed by Sergei Kolosov, based on the work of the same name by Ovid Gorchakov and Janusz Przymanowski, began showing with Lyudmila Kasatkina in leading role. The film shows the events around the airfield in Sesche. After the screening of this film, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, public organizations turned to the leadership of the USSR with a proposal to award Anna Morozova the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In 1973, according to the documentary book of the fighter of the reconnaissance group "Jack" Ridevsky N.F., the film of the same name "Parachutes on Trees" was shot, telling about the actions of members of the group, including Anna Morozova, in East Prussia.

Awards

• The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded on May 8, 1965 posthumously.
• The order of Lenin
• Order of the Red Star
• Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 2nd class (Poland).

Memory

• A bust of the Heroine is installed in the Victory Park of the city of Mosalsk.
• Streets in the cities of Bryansk, Mosalsk, Zhukovka, and the urban-type settlement of Dubrovka, Bryansk Region, are named after her.
• A museum has been created at Moscow School No. 710.

100 great scouts Damaskin Igor Anatolyevich

ANNA MOROZOVA (1921–1944)

ANNA MOROZOVA (1921–1944)

Among the many heroines-scouts of the Second World War, the name of Anna Morozova can be highlighted. For a long time it was in oblivion, but then it became widely known in our country thanks to the film “We Call Fire on Ourselves”, where Lyudmila Kasatkina brilliantly played her role. But few people know that the Seschinsky underground, which is described in the film, is only a third of her combat biography.

Before the war, at the Seshcha station in the Smolensk region, three hundred kilometers from Moscow, there was an aviation military unit, where twenty-year-old Anna Afanasyevna, or simply Anya Morozova, worked as a modest civilian clerk.

The next day after the start of the war, she came to her superiors and applied to be sent to the front.

Here is the same front, they told her. - You will work at the old place.

But the Germans were getting closer, and one day Anya was invited to the office of the deputy commander of the unit. An unfamiliar middle-aged officer was sitting there.

Anya, - he said, - we know you well. The Nazis will be here soon. Our unit is being evacuated. But someone has to stay. The work will be dangerous and difficult. Are you ready for her?

Of course, the conversation was not so short and not so simple. Anya was given full confidence, and she was left for underground intelligence work.

On the day of the evacuation, a small performance had to be played: Anya ran to the headquarters with a suitcase when the last car with women and children had already gone east. With a sad look, she returned home, or rather, to the building of the former kindergarten- Their house was bombed. On the same evening, German troops entered the village.

The Germans completely restored and expanded the first-class airfield, built shortly before the war. Seschinskaya airbase became one of the largest bases Hitler's long-range bomber aviation, from where the aircraft of the Second Air Force of the Luftwaffe, subordinate to Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, carried out raids on Moscow, Gorky, Yaroslavl, Saratov ... The airfield had a strong air defense, was reliably protected from the ground, all approaches to it were blocked, the area around the base was on a special regime.

At first, Anya's reconnaissance group included girls who worked mainly in the service sector of the German military unit. The names of these Seschinsky girls: Pasha Bakutina, Lucy Senchilina, Lida Korneeva, Maria Ivanyutich, Varya Kirshina, Anya Polyakova, Tanya Vasilkova, Motya Erokhina. And two more Jewish girls - Vera Molochnikova and Anya Pshestelets, who fled from the Smolensk ghetto, whom Anya hid for six months, and then sent to a partisan detachment and since then used as messengers. Anya passed on the information obtained by the girls to ... senior policeman Konstantin Povarov, the head of the Seschinskaya underground organization, connected with the partisans and intelligence officers, and through them with the Center.

Unfortunately, the information that came through the girls was limited: Russians were not allowed directly to military installations and headquarters.

But women have one indisputable advantage: where they cannot act on their own, they act through men. The Seschin underground fighters managed to first charm, and then make such men their assistants. True, it must be said that they themselves were looking for connections with the underground. These were young Poles mobilized to work in the German army: two Jans - Tim and Mankovsky, Stefan Garkevich, Vaclav Messiash, Czechs - non-commissioned officer Wendelin Roglichka and Gern Hubert and others.

“Anya Morozova and her girls,” Jan Tima recalled many years later, “were the spring and fuse of our whole business.”

Films have been made about Anya, her girlfriends and friends, many articles and books have been written. I would not like to retell them, but what they did deserves at least a simple enumeration.

If at first the successes were of an accidental nature - Anya, for example, managed to steal a gas mask of the latest design from the Germans, find out the numbers of the units stationed at the airfield - then with the acquisition of new assistants, the work became systematic and constant.

What do we need to know for you? Jan asked Tim.

That's it, Anya replied. - Everything about the airfield, everything about the air base, everything about air defense and ground defense.

Soon Anya was given a map with headquarters, barracks, warehouses, workshops, a false airfield, anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, the exact designation of aircraft parking lots indicating their number at each parking lot.

The map was sent to the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front. As a result of the raid made after this, twenty-two aircraft burned down, twenty were damaged, three were shot down while trying to take to the air. The gasoline depot burned down. The airfield was out of order for a whole week. And this is in the days of fierce battles!

The successful bombing was reported in the report of the Soviet Information Bureau.

From that time on, according to the landmarks of the scouts, the bombing of the Seshchinskaya air base was carried out systematically, despite the creation of false airfields, the strengthening of the air defense network, etc.

After the death of Kostya Povarov, who accidentally blew himself up on a mine, Anya headed the Seschinsky underground.

In the days Battle of Stalingrad a powerful blow was dealt to the base - two and a half thousand air bombs were dropped, several dozen aircraft were disabled. By this time, Anya had her own man on the staff of Captain Arweiler, commandant of the Seshchinsky airfield. This man was Wendelin Roglicka. He was able to obtain such information as flight schedules, data on alternate airfields, and even plans for punitive expeditions against partisans. It was he who informed Anya about the departure of part of the flight crew of the Seshchinskaya air base for a vacation in the village of Sergeevka. The guerrillas, having made a night raid on the "rest home", destroyed about two hundred pilots and technicians.

At the beginning of the summer of 1943, both belligerents were preparing for the decisive battles on the Kursk Bulge. Oriented by reconnaissance, Soviet aviation delivered a series of powerful blows to the Seshchinsky airfield. During these devastating bombings, the Germans could hide in bunkers and bomb shelters, while Anya and her friends, who caused fire on themselves, served as shelter in the wretched cellars of wooden houses.

On May 12, 1943, the Germans were amazed to hear that Russian pilots were talking to each other ... in French. They would have been even more amazed if they knew that the raid of Soviet bombers and the French Normandie-Niemen squadron that covered them was directed by a modest twenty-two-year-old washerwoman.

Anya's group was not only extracting intelligence. Underground workers were engaged in sabotage (they poured sugar into gasoline, sand into machine guns, stole parachutes and weapons) and sabotage (delayed mines were attached to the bombs and bomb bays of aircraft, which exploded in the air, and the aircraft died "for unknown reasons" an hour and a half after departure ).

On July 3, 1943, the underground workers noticed an unusual revival at the airfield. A lot of new equipment and flight personnel arrived. It was possible to eavesdrop on the conversations of the pilots that on July 5 the offensive on the Kursk Bulge would begin. The information was timely transmitted to the Center and became another confirmation of the intelligence data already available, which helped to deliver a preemptive strike on the enemy and played an important role in the outcome of one of the largest operations of the Second World War.

Only in the days of the Battle of Kursk, underground members from the group of Anya Morozova blew up sixteen planes! The crews were dying, not having time to radio about the cause of the explosion. Technical and investigative proceedings began. The commander of the Sixth Air Fleet, the famous ace Baron von Richthofen, complained to Berlin, accusing the aircraft factories of sabotage.

However, the investigations did not lead to anything - the Seschinsky underground is one of the few where there was not a single traitor. He only died, falling into the hands of the Gestapo through his own fault, Jan Mankovsky and died like a hero, without betraying anyone. He refused the opportunity to escape, fearing that this would destroy Lyusya Senchilin, who became his wife and was expecting a child. Died without betraying anyone, and Motya Erokhin.

Shortly thereafter, in front of everyone, barely having time to take off, three planes exploded, on which Ian Tim installed mines. They were supposed to explode an hour after takeoff, but the takeoff was delayed.

A wave of arrests swept through Sesche. Jan Tima and Stefan Garkevich were also arrested, but fled, and Anya sent them to the partisan detachment. Most of the other underground workers also managed to escape.

September 18, 1943 Sescha was released. However, for Anya, the fight against fascism did not end there. She became a cadet in the intelligence school of the unit in which Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Konstantin Zaslonov once served. After that, her family lost contact with her. And in 1945 they received a notice that she was missing.

In reality, the following happened. After completing the course, Anya, as part of a group of scouts, was sent behind enemy lines to reconnoiter the enemy's fortification system. On the night of July 27, 1944, paratroopers landed over East Prussia. It consisted of eight scouts led by Captain Pavel Krylatykh and two radio operator girls - Zina Bardysheva and Anya Morozova, "Swan". The group was not lucky, it was dropped into a high forest, and six parachutes remained on the trees, unmasking the landing site.

A few hours after the landing of the group, the Gauleiter of East Prussia, Erich Koch, was reported that parachutes hanging from trees had been found northeast of Königsberg; with the help of dogs, they managed to find the rest, buried, as well as a cargo truck with spare sets of batteries to power the radio and ammunition.

The message about the landing force, which descended at a distance of two or three night transitions from Hitler's headquarters "Wolfschanze", agitated Erich Koch and all his security services a lot. Moreover, this happened just a week after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler in the same "Wolf's Lair". In addition, Erich Koch was the largest landowner who owned several estates in East Prussia. And all this was encroached upon by the Russians! Not without reason, Koch was afraid that the fate of the Reichskommissar of Belorussia, Wilhelm Kube, who was killed by scouts, could befall him. Therefore, large forces were thrown in search of the group. The Germans began the pursuit and in the first short battle they killed the group commander.

But on the same day, the scouts unexpectedly reached the strongest line of reserve German long-term fortifications - reinforced concrete pillboxes, gouges, trenches. The line was not guarded by anyone, since the front was far away. Our command did not know anything about her. This was the first success. In addition, the scouts captured two prisoners from the Todt military construction department, from whom they learned a lot of details about the Ilmenhorst fortification line, stretching from the Lithuanian border in the north to the Masurian marshes in the south. One of the prisoners spoke about the bases prepared for future sabotage groups in the forest, supplied with weapons, ammunition and food.

Anya turned out to be indispensable in the group: she was the first to rush into the river in search of a ford, then, when the group was “surrounded” by a dozen German children from the nearest farm, she took off her uniform, went out to the children in one dress and managed to divert their attention while the rest of the scouts left in the forest. Her knowledge of the German language came in handy.

A real hunt began for the paratroopers. In order to mobilize the vigilance of the population, the Nazis burned the Kleinberg farm, killed its inhabitants and reported in local newspapers that Soviet paratroopers had done it.

Erich Koch, the executioner and murderer, did not have to go to such a provocation.

Himmler himself, who repeatedly called from Berlin, was interested in the results of the operation against the paratroopers. The raids did not stop day or night. In addition to the police forces, up to two regiments were allocated daily to comb the forests. Mobile groups in vehicles immediately went to the places where the radio transmissions were conducted by the Germans.

In a severe thunderstorm, scouts came across a post of German signalmen. Through the window it was clear that the orderly was sleeping.

What if I go, - Anya volunteered. - If the German wakes up, I will say that there is a sick woman on the porch, I will ask you to help her. If he goes for it, you will grab him, and if not, I will shoot him.

So they did. The German came out, they grabbed him and interrogated him. They did not receive valuable information from him, but he said that everyone had been warned about the landing of paratroopers - both civilians and military units.

In the area of ​​​​the city of Goldap, they again reached the fortified line. There they were caught by a German raid. It was impossible to retreat, we had to fight to break through the chain of soldiers. During the battle, they reached a German airfield, from where they miraculously managed to escape and hide in the nearest forest. They quickly transmitted the encryption to the Center with the intelligence received and again went along the fortified line, putting it on the map. For the night we returned to the forest already combed by the Germans. The next day, we received an order from the Center to return to the landing area, go to the Königsberg-Tilsit road and take control of the transportation along it and along the nearest highway.

The scouts managed to find a convenient place from which the roads were visible. To transmit radiograms, Anya and Zina made many kilometers of maneuvers. Their stations got in touch in the most unexpected places: in the field, near the garrisons, on the outskirts of cities, on the shores of the Kurishes-Gaf Bay. During the night, the girls managed to go far, found themselves behind the chain of enemy encirclement and returned back.

From the report of the headquarters of the Third Belorussian Front: “Valuable material is coming from the Jack reconnaissance group. Of the sixty-seven radiograms received, forty-seven are informational.”

The group was starving. From the telegrams of the new group commander to the Center in early November 1944: “All members of the group are not people, but shadows ... They are so hungry, cold and chilled in their summer outfit that they do not have the strength to hold machine guns. We ask you to allow access to Poland, otherwise we are lost.”

But the group continued to operate, conducted reconnaissance, took languages, sent ciphers to the Center. In one of the battles, the group was surrounded.

From Lebed's radio message: “Three days ago, the SS men attacked the dugout. "Joy" (Zina) was immediately wounded in the chest. She told me: “If you can, tell your mother that I did everything I could. She died well." And shot herself…”

The survivors broke out of the encirclement, but lost each other. Anya with a walkie-talkie wandered through the forest for three days, until she came across scouts from the special group of Captain Chernykh. We met with Polish partisans and carried out several operations together. In one of them, the group was ambushed, Captain Chernykh and the rest of the scouts died.

And again Anna managed to escape. She managed to enter the territory of Poland in Myshenetskaya Pushcha, north of Warsaw. There she still had the opportunity to stay alive, lost in the crowds of refugees and the driven away. But she decided to keep fighting.

Anya found a Polish partisan detachment, joined it and took part in the battles. One of them was wounded. She interrupted left hand. Anya tried to joke: "The radio operator needs one right one."

The wounded girl was hidden in the forest near the tar miner Pavel Yasinovsky, but the raid got there too. The morning of December 31, 1944 was the last for her. She was surrounded during the raid, she fired back, being wounded several times, and when they wanted to take her prisoner, she blew herself and the radio with a grenade.

The Poles buried her in mass grave town Gradzanuvle.

In 1965, Anna Afanasievna Morozova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and she was awarded the Polish Cross of Grunwald II degree.

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