For what non-military feats 7 women received the title of Hero of Russia

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

Only 17 women can be proud of the title of Hero of Russia. Some of them were awarded the Golden Star posthumously, for the deeds performed during the Great Patriotic War. The remaining representatives of the fair sex have shown heroism and fearlessness already in peacetime. Who are they, women, Heroes of modern Russia, whose names are forever inscribed in the history of the country?

Marina Plotnikova

This 17-year-old schoolgirl had many plans ahead of her. She just graduated from high school in the village of Zubrilovo in the Penza region and, for sure, was going to go to college. However, on a summer evening on June 30, 1991, she saw how her friend Natalya Vorobyova began to drown in the Khoper River. Yesterday's graduate, without hesitation, rushed to the rescue and was able to push the girl to a safe place. But at the same time, Marina's two younger sisters, Zhanna and Lena, fell into the whirlpool. She was also able to save them, but she did not have enough strength to swim out. In August 1992, she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia. She became the first woman to be awarded this high title.

Lyubov Egorova

The name of Lyubov Egorova is known to all sports lovers. It was for the outstanding achievements in sports and the shown courage and heroism during the 1994 Winter Olympics, when the skier in the relay brought the Russian national team to first place, and she was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

Elena Kondakova

She became the third female cosmonaut in Russian history. She made two flights into space. The first took place on October 4, 1985, when she became a flight engineer for the Soyuz TM-20 expedition and spent 169 days in space. It was for this flight that the third woman-cosmonaut was awarded the title of Hero of Russia. For the second time, Elena Kondakova went to the stars more than two years later, this time as part of the STS-84 expedition on the American space shuttle Atlantis. The stay in space was 9 days.

Larisa Lazutina

The five-time Olympic champion in 1998 was awarded the title of Hero of Russia for outstanding achievements in sports. The skier has five Olympic gold medals, 11 world championship gold medals and two world gold cups.

Marem Arapkhanova

She never took part in hostilities, worked as a simple kindergarten teacher in the village of Galashki, Sunzhensky District of Ingushetia, was a caring wife and loving mother. But on September 26, 2002, Chechen fighters burst into the village where Marem Arapkhanova lived and worked. They planned to capture Galashki without firing a single shot while all the residents were sleeping. The woman heard a noise in the yard, went out and began loudly chasing the bandits away, hoping that her neighbors would wake up from her screams. When the husband of Marem Akhmetovna left the house, one of the militants pointed machine guns at him, hoping to silence the woman in this way. She barred her husband with herself, and a machine gun fire hit her. The militants' plan to quietly capture the village was thwarted, but the brave woman paid for it with her own life. The raised noise contributed to the detection and destruction of a group of armed bandits. The title of Hero of Russia was awarded to Marem Arapkhanova posthumously in June 2003.

Nina Brusnikova

This woman, who was born into a large family, is accustomed to work. After graduating from an agricultural college, she worked as a cashier at a state farm, as a nurse in a kindergarten, and then became a milking machine operator. At the end of April 2006, she was doing her usual business when she noticed that last year's grass had caught fire on the territory of the livestock complex. At first, Nina Vladimirovna tried to extinguish the fire on her own, but she quickly realized that she could not cope with the flame herself. But even calling the firefighters, she did not give up, but continued, as best she could, to do everything so that the fire would not spread to the facilities of the breeding plant. Subsequently, the firefighters who arrived at the scene noted that it was the selfless actions of Nina Brusnikina that helped to avoid a major fire with unpredictable consequences. Her feat was worthy of being awarded the title of Hero of Russia. Already in October 2006, Nina Vladimirovna Brusnikova received the Gold Star.

Elena Serova

She spent 167 days in space and became the fourth female cosmonaut in the entire history of the USSR and Russia. Elena Serova went to her flight in September 2014 all her life. After graduating from high school, she entered the Moscow Aviation Institute at the aerospace faculty, later received a second higher education, this time in economics, worked as an engineer at RSC Energia and at the Mission Control Center until she was recommended for inclusion in the cosmonaut corps. She became the first female astronaut on the ISS. After Elena Serova returned from the expedition in March 2015, she was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

Crane operator Tamara Pastukhova was not awarded the title of Hero of Russia, but she performed a heroic deed while extinguishing a fire, which happened at the construction site of an automobile bridge in St. Petersburg. The woman risked her life to save the workers who were cut off from the exit from the scaffolding by the fire.