The incredible achievement of British World War II’s combatant Thomas Moore who has raised a great sum for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) in the run-up to his 100th birthday inspired a veteran in St. Petersburg to take similar action. Aiming to collect money for local doctors and nurses who have been busy fighting against Covid-19, Zinaida (in short Zina) Korneva, who has turned 98, has started a fundraising campaign through YouTube and her website.
Zinaida was born in 1922 in the Orenburg region where she completed her education as a teacher and started her professional career. Just after the start of the fascists’ invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, she was enlisted in the Red Army and sent to training courses. Upon completion of her training, including shooting, leopard crawling, and drill, the battalion she had been assigned to, was relocated to the Rostov region.
On May 1, 2020, she started to publish videos on her YouTube channel. As she explained in the first video in English, she was inspired by Captain Moore’s move and success. “We fought together and we won, now we’re fighting against another enemy”, she said. She called on Russians to help donate for St. Petersburg medics who are on the fireline in this battle with the coronavirus. She said she would knit socks for the British vet as a gift for his 100th birthday.
Mrs. Korneva promised to load videos every day to raise money.
In her videos, she tells stories about her service and war experience. That’s live history provided by one of few Russian veterans who is alive our days.
Zinaida’s military profession was an artillery observer. She had to observe the sky and identify the type and model of any aircraft by any part of it, be it wings, fuselage, or whatever. The observer’s function was also the identification of the height and direction of the aircraft. At night, the identification process was based solely on hearing which made the task much more complicated.
“One day I even could spot a face of the pilot, when a Junkers 88 went just a few meters over our observation station”, she told in one of her stories.
She shared her experience of unexpected encounters with the enemy troops, a retrograde through the Kalmyk heath without enough supply of water, but with “very delicious American sausage”, saying “thank you, Americans”.
One day she narrowly escaped death when by occasion she was not included in a team of an observation post that was murdered by the fascists. “Girls’ bodies were fouled up all beyond recognition”, she told noticeably trying not to burst into tears.
Despite all the suffering, lack of food and water, they experienced almost no diseases. In 1943, they even celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8.
Part of the Zinaida’s service was in Kazakhstan, on the Caspian Sea, where her battalion was involved in defending oil processing plants, and in Ukraine. After the war, she moved to Leningrad (the name of St. Petersburg 1924 — 1991) following her husband, where she has been living since then.
Many men, she said, were surprisingly asking what was the benefit of having girls in the war as soldiers. But women proved they could fight as well as men, in Zinaida’s opinion.
In a few days, Zinaida Korneva assisted her granddaughter has managed to collect nearly two million rubles, something about $27,000, according to current exchange rates. Not a sum to look impressive in dollars, but rather feasible for Russia.
P. S. On October 12, 2021, Zinaida Korneva died just one year before her 100th birthday. Captain Sir Thomas Moore died on February 2, 2021, at the age of 100. Hopefully, the witnesses of the epoch are now in the best of worlds.
Photo credit: https://zinastories.com