How a 21-year-old Soviet partisan worked for the Gestapo, or the non-fictional story of the first Soviet TV series

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In 1965, Soviet filmmakers released the first military series Calling Fire on Ourselves, the plot of which was built around an elusive group of underground workers at the German airfield in the city of Seshcha. The main character, 21-year-old Anya Morozova, led the partisan internationalists and died heroically while performing an important mission. In the USSR, this film has gained incredible popularity. And in addition to the talented acting of the actors, the success lay in the complete storyline accuracy. In an acute and exciting scenario, if something has been thought out, it is only some abstract trifles.

Imaginary collaboration and underground laundresses

After graduating from accounting courses at the age of 16, Anna Morozova was forced to work, helping her parents feed her four younger sisters and brothers. In the mid-1930s, the small town of Seshcha began to be intensively rebuilt. The reason was a strategically important object - a military airfield, designed to cover a major highway. An aviation military unit with bombers in service was based at the airfield. The war came to Seshcha suddenly. All the men were sent to the front in one day, and the air regiment left for the battlefield. The residential part of the military town was bombed for several days in a row, while the airfield was not subjected to shelling - the Germans clearly hoped to use this object for their own purposes. And already at the beginning of September 1941, two fascist air force regiments arrived there, establishing a 5-kilometer quarantine zone around the airfield. Local residents were allowed into their hometown only on condition of effective cooperation with the invaders.

Anya Morozova voluntarily came to the Gestapo commandant's office and expressed a desire to work for the Germans. They did not see anything suspicious in this and took the girl as a laundress to the airfield. By that time, her old friends were already working here. The fascists could not even imagine that they had grouped the Komsomol-youth underground at a strategically important facility with their own hands. A team of laundresses, hanging out the washed Nazi linen in the backyard of the airfield, was in direct communication with the Bryansk partisan headquarters and regularly transmitted to the center the necessary information about the actions and movements of the Germans.

The intrigues of the rear underground and the liberation of Seshcha

The detachment of girls was led by Konstantin Povarov, an undercover officer of the Seshchino police. Anna was his first assistant, and after the death of the leader, she took his place. In addition to transmitting information, the tasks of the partisan detachment included the organization of sabotage at the airfield. Despite her youth and poor experience, Morozova did an excellent job. The underground workers organized the delivery of small mines to the airfield and destroyed dozens of enemy bombers. "Reseda" (call sign Anna Morozova) soon succeeded in attracting Poles and Czechs mobilized into German troops into conspiratorial activities for the benefit of the USSR.

Foreign accomplices handed over to the Red Army detailed maps of the airfield and layouts of air defense around Seshcha. Also, with the help of internationalist partisans, a guidance post for Union aircraft was created at the airbase. Thus, it was possible to inflict a series of crushing and decisive air strikes on the object, destroying enemy equipment and a couple of hundred fascists. The Germans understood that a venerable underground was operating under their noses. And in 1943, the Gestapo identified and executed several members of the partisan group. With the release of Sescha, Morozova's underground group was disbanded, and Anna herself was awarded an honorary medal.

Intelligence school and radio operator "Swan"

By the age of 22, Anna Morozova managed to do more for her homeland than others in her entire life. Having every right to return to her usual peaceful life, the girl asked to study at the school of radio operators in order to continue intelligence work. After improving her skills, Anna, under the new pseudonym "Swan", was sent as a radio operator to the special group "Jack". The group operated in the East Prussian forests. The elusive "Jack", marching in the German rear in front of the advancing Red Army, supplied his own with the most valuable intelligence information.

In addition, the scouts blew up bridges, crossings and targeted enemy officers. Moreover, each brilliant sabotage operation was carried out exclusively on its own. In the Prussian forests, the local population could not be counted on. In the open air around the clock, the members of "Jack" reeled from hunger and fatigue. In the fall of 1944, the command received permission for the group to enter the Soviet rear through Poland. Lebed got the necessary contacts among the Polish partisans. But the peaceful transition was not destined to come true.

Punishers on the tail and the last fight

On the trail of "Jack" the punishers came out. The scouts fought their way into Poland, with the result that only a few survived. Breaking away from the enemy, Anna sought refuge in the Polish villages, polls occupied by the SS. After three days of wandering, she was lucky enough to go to the partisan group of Captain Chernykh. But the next day, the reconnaissance detachment again ran into the Nazis Morozova received a severe hand injury in battle, which made it difficult for her to move on. And the punishers literally followed in the footsteps of the underground. It was dangerous to hide with local villagers: when partisans were discovered, the Germans treated civilians cruelly. The girl hid in a remote dugout of the old Poles, resin-dwellers, and the detachment moved on. But the Germans quickly found Anna with the help of service dogs. The girl still had a pistol and several grenades. One arm, which had already failed, did not even allow to reload the clip.

The surviving tarmaker Yankovsky will later tell the partisans that, having discharged the weapon to the last bullet and laid down several fascists, the girl ordered the old man to leave and took over the last battle. The Germans, dumbfounded, saw a grenade under their feet before they could understand anything. Morozova blew up the second grenade in her hands, sending a dozen more SS men rushing at her to the next world. According to the same surviving resin, the SS officer who commanded the detachment defeated by Anna ordered her body to be delivered to the nearest unit. And the soldiers passing by the carts with the brave deceased were ordered to salute.

There were other episodes when Soviet women skillfully carried out sabotage operations, eliminating the hated policemen and their accomplices. So, the scouts staged a real hunt for the Gauleiter of Belarus Wilhelm Kube.