Letters to the "Immortal Regiment of the Young" section of the "Golden Key" newspaper come from different cities and villages of our country. Recently news came from Kursk from Natalya Alekseevna Kugach. She told about the brave nurse, Hero of the Soviet Union, Ekaterina Demina (Mikhailova).
Many military awards found their owners after our Victory. But the merits of the heroes do not diminish from this. So, in 1990, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Ekaterina Illarionovna Demina, nee Mikhailova. To a brave front-line nurse, whose exploits at the front were legendary …
She was born on December 22, 1925 in Leningrad. As a little girl, a three-year-old girl, she became an orphan and ended up in an orphanage. By June 1941, Katya graduated from grade 9 and school nursing courses of the Russian Red Cross Society. And on vacation I went to the distant city of Brest, to visit my brother-pilot. He promised to show amazing animals - bison. The girl never saw them, because there were no bison in the Leningrad Zoo …
Her path lay through Moscow. On June 21, Katyusha got on a train that was supposed to take her to her brother. But on the morning of June 22, a train near Smolensk came under fire from the Nazis. And Katyusha, along with other passengers, went on foot to Smolensk.
The girl dreamed of helping our soldiers. Therefore, she volunteered for the front, adding two years to herself. And at the age of 16 she became a sister of mercy.
The front line of Katyusha began near Gzhatsk (today this city of the Smolensk region is called Gagarin). Here in September 1941 she was seriously wounded in the leg. She was treated in hospitals in the Urals and in Baku. Since childhood, Katya, who dreamed of the sea, asked the military commissar to send her to the navy. So she ended up on the military-sanitary ship "Krasnaya Moskva", which ferried the wounded from Stalingrad along the Volga to Krasnovodsk. Katya was awarded the rank of foreman. Many feats were accomplished by the sister of mercy Katyusha, whom the sailors affectionately called Danube.
Here is what is written in her award sheet for the medal “For Courage”: “Being shell-shocked, she provided medical assistance under heavy enemy fire to 17 soldiers. She carried them out along with weapons and evacuated them to the rear. The shell-shocked girl herself helped the adults!
And here is an extract from the award list for the Order of the Patriotic War II degree: “In street battles she showed herself courageously and courageously, under enemy fire she bandaged wounded soldiers and officers - 85 people. She carried 13 people from the battlefield …
Let's stop for a minute, dear readers. Let's think: where did the street fighting record come from? Here's the thing. In February 1943, the 369th separate battalion of the marines was formed from volunteers in the city of Baku. Katerina submitted a request to be enrolled as a sanitary instructor. She, of course, was refused. And a strong-willed, stubborn girl wrote a letter of request addressed to the Soviet government! And so she became a marine paratrooper.
With the 369th battalion, Katyusha fought through the waters of the Caucasus, the Azov and Black Seas, the Dniester and the Danube … Along with the fighters she entered the battle, repulsed attacks, carried the wounded from the battlefield. She herself was wounded three times, but at the same time she showed miracles of courage.
… On the night of August 21-22, 1944, Katyusha took part in the crossing of the Dniester estuary. One of the first to reach the coast. Clinging to the roots and branches of bushes, the girl climbed the high ridge of the river bank, helped other paratroopers to climb and pull out a heavy machine gun. During the battle, she provided first aid to seventeen Red Navy men, rescued the seriously wounded chief of staff of the detachment from the water, threw grenades at a fascist bunker, destroyed twenty Nazis, and took nine prisoners …
During the battle for the Ilok fortress, being in the water, being wounded, Katyusha helped our soldiers. And when enemy boats approached the island, she took a machine gun and repulsed the attack. For this feat, Catherine was presented to the highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But she received the Order of the Red Banner.
After the war, Ekaterina Illarionovna worked as a doctor in the city of Elektrostal, Moscow Region. She got married and had a son, Yuri. From 1976 until she retired, the heroine worked in Moscow. And only in 1990 she received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The award found her 45 years later!
Today Ekaterina Illarionovna lives in Moscow. She is a member of the Russian Committee of War Veterans, the All-Russian Council of War and Labor Veterans. Two documentaries have been filmed about the life and deeds of the brave defender of the Motherland: Katyusha (1964) and Katyusha Big and Small (2008). The first film won the Golden Dove of Peace award and the main prize at the Leipzig Film Festival.
One of the chapters of the famous book of the writer Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov "Stories of Unknown Heroes" is dedicated to Ekaterina Demina (Mikhailova).
