During the Second World War, if the Germans captured a female Soviet soldier then orders
were given to execute them on sight. The Soviets allowed women into the Red Army especially
following the heavy losses after the initial stages of Operation Barbarossa. Initially
women who wanted to serve were turned away, but Stalin changed his mind and women saw
action in a number of different ways. The Germans saw the women as an attack on their
way of life, and the traditional values instilled into German society by the Nazi Party.
They saw the use of women as a backwards policy of Bolshevism, but one of the most famous
roles Soviet women had was as snipers. Female snipers claimed around 11 thousand lives of
German soldiers and officers during World War 2, and they were greatly feared, but when
found dealt with horrifically. Today we look at a female sniper who was executed in barbaric
fashion. So join us as we look at the Brutal Execution of Tatyana Baramzina. Remember as
always to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Born on the 19th December 1919 into a large family, Tatyana Baramzina was the second youngest
of 6 children. Her family were Russian Merchants, and her father did different jobs to earn
money, from fishing and repairing boats to building structures. Her mother baked bread
and sold it at a local market, and the family did not have much money. At some point her
family broke up, and her parents separated and he then died in 1931 when Tatyana was
around 11. Her mother struggled to cope with the financial problems the family were in,
but Tatyana did finish secondary school in the 1930s. She once had wished to become a
pilot and dreamed of doing so, but she then wished to work as a teacher and she worked
gaining experience in a number of small village schools.
She then was given a teaching position at a school in Kachkashur, after she graduated
from teacher training college in July 1939. However before this, she had joined the local
Komsomol, the youth group and detachment of the Communist Party. During the Second World
War, the Komsomol performed a number of different duties, many members built infrastructure,
worked in fields and contributed inside of the factories to the Soviet war effort. Baramzina
worked hard within the group, and then became a pioneer leader alongside being a teacher,
leading a small detachment of the Komsomol. She wished to study more about education but
following funding cuts she was forced to leave another university before becoming a teacher
of the kindergarten.
Now when the Second World War broke out, it looked as if the Soviets and the Nazis would
be free from conflict after the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact was signed, which aimed to secure peace
for 10 years. This ultimately didn’t last long, as following territorial gains and invasions
of Poland and France, Hitler turned his attention east towards the Balkans and the Soviet Union.
The German Army and their axis allies rampaged through the Balkan states, and then headed
towards the Soviet Union in 1941. The invasion codenamed Operation Barbarossa began, and
for the Germans initially it was rather successful as the Wehrmacht rolled through Soviet territory
causing chaos and taking large amounts of land. Because of the initial Soviet losses
and the fact a huge amount of soldiers were wounded and killed, Stalin reversed his initial
decision to allow women to join the Red Army and to take up arms.
Many German generals saw this as a great offence, and as a barbaric and backwards policy of
Bolshevism, with Germans preferring more traditional values, and Hitler had instilled less progressive
duties for women, forcing them back into the home and encouraging them to have as many
children as possible, and to serve their husbands. So with women inside the Red Army, this was
seen as a great shock. German generals because of this issued decrees and orders that any
women found fighting for the enemy, or in uniform should be shot on sight or hanged
from the nearest tree. Thousands of women did take up arms in the Red Army to help out
and fight against the enemy.
Tatyana Baramzina signed up on a 6 month nursing course, and attempted to enlist in the military
however she was initially refused entry into the army. However she went on to take part
in a number of military courses, and in particular was noted for her success in a sharpshooting
course and she graduated with honours for this, being noted for her skills with a rifle.
Baramzina then joined the Central Women’s Sniper Training School in June 1943, to learn
fully how to become a sharpshooter and a sniper. After graduating, she then was deployed into
service as a sniper within the 252nd Rifle Regiment. She arrived on the frontlines on
the 3rd April 1944, with the Soviet’s pushing the Germans back at this stage of the war.
Within a week she made her first kill with her sniper rifle, and then she managed to
rack up a kill count of 16 enemy soldiers, picking them off at distance.
There was an issue though, as she was suffering from bad eyesight and because of this she
left her role as a sniper, but wished to stay inside of the military. Baramzina then transitioned
into becoming a telephone operator and she was tasked with repairing damaged communication
and telephone wires close to the front lines. This was a very dangerous job, and she would
often do this under heavy fire and artillery. In May 1944, she detected that the German
army were approaching from the rear of her battalion, and she managed to warn her commander
of this, and despite the commander dying in battle, Baramzina helped to lead a counterattack
facing the enemy. She continued to work in the Red Army repairing telephone wires under
heavy pressure, and during one battle was forced to repair the command posts telephone
wires 14 times because of the brutal artillery barrage fired from the enemy.
During Operation Bagration, the decisive victory for the Red Army that battered the German
Army, in just 23 days the Red Army advanced around 500km, and they inflicted huge losses
on the German army, but at a huge cost to the Soviets. The 70th Infantry Division made
a small assault force the block west routes that the Germans could use as a way to retreat.
The Red Army prepared for their advance on the 4th July 1944, and Baramzina initially
not chosen to be part of the advancing group, managed to convince her commander to let her
go, saying she would be useful as a sniper and also a medic. The group started off well,
taking a crossing in Pekalin, a small village and they waited for the retreating German
army, who would have been disorganised and not expecting an assault. It came, and the
Red Army artillery battered the Germans from both sides as they arrived near the village,
and the Germans with nowhere to go to fought bravely, and intensely.
They would not give up, and eventually managed to oust the Soviets from the village for a
few hours. There were a great degree of Soviet soldiers injured, and Baramzina was very busy
tending to the wounded. Many of them had hidden themselves in a grain field to hide, and were
inside a dugout which had been taken from the Germans initially. Baramzina joined them
and tended to the badly injured, and she placed herself in danger and it was likely that the
Germans would attack once more. She had a chance to leave the dugout, and to sneak out
using the rye field, but refused to do so.
The Germans at the time were too busy trying to escape the Soviets who were surrounding
them to search a forest or the grain field, but whilst tending to the wounded the German
army came across the dugout.
Tatyana Baramzina had to make a decision, flee or protect those soldiers who were injured.
The Germans approached the dugout, and she grabbed a machine gun from one of the soldiers
and waited. As the German soldiers ran towards the dugout, she managed to shoot dead three
soldiers, and she opened up with her machine gun until she ran out of ammunition. She continued
to throw grenades and fire anything she could at the enemy, but before she could inflict
more damage two German soldiers entered the dugout from behind, and threw grenades at
her, and Baramzina injured was captured. She was dragged out of the dugout, and then the
injured soldiers were shot dead inside of the dugout.
So Tatyana was dragged out of the dugout, and then her brutal execution came about very
shortly after. The German soldiers, began to torture her for information, and they took
their bayonets out and began to stab and mutilate her with their knives. They then took their
rifles out and began to smash her over the head with their rifle butts. Then the final
humiliation came for Tatyana Baramzina. One of the soldiers took out an anti tank rifle,
an incredibly powerful weapon that was designed to penetrate the armour of tanks and armoured
fighting vehicles. These weapons were incredibly powerful, and shot through steel.
One of the soldiers took out an anti tank rifle and took aim at Baramzina’s head.
He then fired a shot into her skull, instantly killing her. The damage would have been immense,
but a few hours later the 70th Infantry Division found her remains after they successfully
completed their mission to take out the Germans who were retreating. Her remains were then
interred in a mass grave in Volma, and were later moved in 1963. But Tatyana’s execution
was one which was common with captured female soviet soldiers. Once they were captured,
many German soldiers mutilated them before executing them in horrific ways.
Tatyana Baramzina was only just 24 when she was executed in horrific fashion by the German
soldiers. She was a skilled sniper who racked up an impressive kill count before she transferred
across to being a medic. She wished to remain inside the Red Army, and she rose to the rank
of Corporal and was later awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest award for
citizens of the Soviet Union. She was one of many women executed by the Germans who
fought in the Red Army, but the teacher who became a sniper wanted to help the war effort.
The story of Tatyana Baramzina is a very interesting one, but a sad one as decisions were taken
to execute her in particular barbaric fashion.
Once again thanks for watching
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Once again thanks for watching.