Biography of Zinaida Portnova

Zina Portnova Biography Zinaida Portnova Zina Portnova, young partisan underground, pioneer, who died at the age of 17-the death of the brave. The fate of the girl is struck by the tragedy of anyone who recognizes the story of her feat and martyrdom. The native of Leningrad, Zina Portnova was born in the year and before the war led the usual life of the Soviet girl. For summer school holidays, parents sent Zina together with her younger sister Galya to her grandmother in the Vitebsk region, to the village of Zui, Shumilinsky district.

The grandmother’s attempt to send her granddaughter home to Leningrad failed - the Germans blocked all the roads. So, the girl remained in the occupied territory. From the first days of the war in the Vitebsk region, numerous underground and partisan formations began to be organized to provide resistance to the Nazis. Fifteen -year -old Zina Portnova becomes the youngest member of the underground organized in the Shumilinsky district, called "Young Avengers".

True, the oldest member of the group, the organizer and ideological inspirer Efrosinya Zenkova Fruse were almost children, the participants in the underground, began their actions with trifles: they stuck anti -fascist leaflets, engaged in small wrecking in relation to the Germans. Fruza herself found an exit to the local partisan detachment and adult underground workers and coordinated actions with them.

Gradually, sabotage from the "young avengers" become more and more serious. They managed to set fire to wagons with linen, looted by the Nazis and sent to Germany, to carry out arson of industrial enterprises operating for the Nazis, and undermining. The feat of the partisan Zina Portnova one of the largest operations was the poisoning of more than a hundred German officers. And here is the merit of Zina Portnova.

Working as a dishwasher in the dining room, where officers fed for retraining courses, Zina poisoned food. She herself then miraculously managed to avoid death and responsibility. The Germans forced her to eat from a plate with poisoned soup. She took a spoonlessly and ate a little soup, thus taking away suspicions from herself. From the poison she was saved by her grandmother with the help of folk remedies.

A strong organism coped, and the girl survived. After this sabotage, Zina Portnova went to the partisan detachment. Here she was admitted to the Komsomol. In August, the traitor introduced in the underground of the “young avengers”, passes all members of the organization. Only Fruz Zenkov and several young underground workers manage to escape. After numerous torture and interrogations, in October thirty young men and girls were executed by the Nazis.

Zina Portnova, fulfilling the assignment of the partisan detachment, tried to get in touch with the saved underground. But the mission failed, it was identified and arrested in the village of Mostishche. By that time, the Nazis had already known a lot about the role of Zina in the "Young Avengers." Only her participation in poisoning was not known. Therefore, they tried to agree with her that she would hand over the rescued members of the underground.

But the girl was unstable. One of the interrogations carried out in the village of Goryany ended with the fact that Zina managed to grab the investigator’s gun and shoot him and two more Germans, who were present during interrogation. An attempt to escape failed, Zina shot in the leg. And when she tried to shoot herself with the last cartridge, the gun gave an misfire.

Zina Portnova went through all the circles of hell before her execution. They tortured her brutally: they dangled her eyes, crippled, sophisticated in attempts to cause more torment, driving needles under the nails and cauterizing the skin with hot iron. Zina endured everything steadily and did not give any testimony. Waiting for death as deliverance, after one of the interrogations, she escaped from the hands of the escorts and rushed under the truck.

But she was pulled out and again thrown into the cell. In January, the crippled, blind and completely gray -haired girl was led to execution. She was shot in the square with other sentenced. Only after almost 15 years did the world learn about the feat of young underground.