Camping-field wives: How the front-line novels of famous commanders and military leaders ended

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

Women, with whom officers and commanders had romance in wartime, were called field wives, often contemptuously abbreviating: ППЖ. Their reputation was like that of women of easy virtue, and the attitude was appropriate. However, is it possible to condemn women who tried to be happy in the crucible of the Great Patriotic War? Who were the field wives of famous personalities of the Soviet era, and how their front-line romances ended.

Lydia Zakharova and Marshal Zhukov

Georgy Konstantinovich in September 1941 issued an order according to which it was recommended to remove all women from the headquarters and all command posts, leaving only the typists, coordinating their number with a special department. The order was caused by the need to end the extra-statutory relations of commanders and staff officers with women, who were called field wives.

However, it was at this time that Zhukov himself had a fighting girlfriend, Lydia Zakharova. She was far from his first love, but relations with Lydia Vladimirovna began in 1941, already during the war. The girl was a military assistant and accompanied Georgy Konstantinovich everywhere, even on the front line. However, he himself treated her very carefully.

He had a wife in the rear, but even after the war, Georgy Zhukov did not part with his Lida. Living together in Odessa, they parted only at the time when his legal wife came to Zhukov. However, the relationship ended when Georgy Konstantinovich met Galina Semyonova, his last love.

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Tamara Laverchenko and Leonid Brezhnev

She was only 19, she served as a nurse in a hospital in Voroshilovgrad. She managed to survive a lot: cold, wounded, blood, death. And when Colonel Evdokimov from the personnel department of the army suggested that she and another nurse from the hospital transfer to the political department, of course, they agreed. Already in the political department, Tamara Laverchenko and Leonid Brezhnev met, they lived in the same city before the war, and this immediately brought the young nurse and the brigade commissar closer together. In rare moments of silence, when the whole department was going to celebrate some kind of holiday, Leonid invited her to dance, and they danced around, as if soaring above the earth with happiness and love. It seemed to both of them then that it was forever. After all, they sincerely loved each other.

After the war, Leonid Brezhnev was even going to divorce his wife, Victoria Petrovna. But she understood: let her husband go in these difficult post-war years, and she simply would not raise children herself. And the wife of the future secretary general threatened him with a complaint to the regional party committee. She could put an end to her husband's party career with one letter. Then he stayed with the family.

Tamara got married in 1947, but her friendship with Leonid Ilyich continued for many years. Tamara forever remained in the heart of the secretary general with a warm memory of front-line love.

Raisa Galperina and Marshal Malinovsky

They met in 1942 while leaving the encirclement. Raisa Galperina was only 22 years old, she worked in a bath and laundry plant, but was very attentive to everything that happened around her. She managed to collect intelligence and find out the number of German tanks.

The military leader personally presented her with the Order of the Red Star in 1943, and in 1944 achieved her transfer to the headquarters with subsequent appointment to the post of head of the canteen of the Military Council. It seemed that this romance, like many other front-line relationships, was supposed to end after the war.

Malinovsky did not deceive his wife, he informed her of his decision to divorce, but assured that he would not stop providing for her and his sons. In 1946, the couple finally separated. And the fighting girlfriend of Rodion Yakovlevich soon became his legal wife, gave birth to his daughter Natalia.

Antonina Vasilieva and Marshal Konev

Antonina, who at first served as a nurse, then fed the soldiers on the front line, was assigned to the front commander to become his au pair. The headquarters was located in an ordinary house, where Konev had a room for a short rest. Seeing Ivan Stepanovich for the first time, Antonina was only surprised at his tired appearance and some kind of restlessness. Konev just looked at her and asked to be the mistress.

She became her, at first she simply did her job, and then took a place in his heart. I went through the whole war with him, vigilantly made sure that he took medicine and ate on time, as ordered by the army doctor because of Ivan Stepanovich's ulcer. Colleagues laughed, saying that she made her way to the front line with a thermos.

After the war, Ivan Konev did not find the strength to part with his Tonya. Painfully, she sunk into his soul. Antonina Vasilievna for 31 years was the mistress of his house and his soul.

Svetlana Popova and Nikolay Shchelokov

They met in 1944 at the front, where 17-year-old Svetlana served as a hospital nurse, and 34-year-old Nikolai was the head of the division's political department. Having met in the war, they never parted again.

Nikolai Shchelokov was rapidly moving up the party ladder after his friend, Leonid Brezhnev. A month after Brezhnev's death, he was removed from the post of Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and then accused of bribery and abuse.

Svetlana committed suicide in February 1983. Before her death, all of Moscow discussed the attempt on Andropov's life, which Svetlana committed, trying to intercede for her husband.

The first time after the October Revolution in the young Land of the Soviets, complete freedom of morals reigned, and adherence to traditional family values was considered old-fashioned. Time returned everything to its place, the realization of the value of the institution of marriage came, public opinion took the side of the strong cell of Soviet society. But even then there were public people who lived in two families at the same time.