Witches of the Night
By Raúl Antonio Capote on May 10, 2025
Although much has been documented about the momentous feat of the Soviet military defeat over Nazi Germany, however in all fairness very little has been said about the role women played in the victory. They were not mere window dressing for the resistance; they fought with determination, courage, and boundless dedication.
The writer André Malraux said of women: “Those who have sought to confine women to the mere role of auxiliaries to the resistance have misunderstood the nature of war.”
In the Soviet Union, nearly one million women mastered all specialties in the ranks of the Red Army during the war, not counting the partisans and those in the civilian militias. Ninety were awarded the title of Heroine of the Soviet Union for their contribution to victory.
On May 21, 1943, the Central Training School for Women Snipers was created. By 1945, this institution had trained more than 2,000 women.
Of the 2,000 women trained at this school, only 500 survived the war.
Liudmila Pavlichenko, considered the best sniper of all time, killed more than 300 enemy soldiers. Tosia Tinguinova, Natasha Kovshova, Lídiya Bakieva, Nina Alexetevna Lobkovskaya, and many others endured harsh trials and earned the admiration of the people for their heroism.
The famous 588th Night Bomber Regiment deserves special mention. The fascists called them “night witches,” their compatriots called them “little sisters.”
The squadrons of the women’s regiment struck real terror into the Germans. They flew in small P-2 biplanes, slow and obsolete aircraft nicknamed kukuruznik, or “corn cob.” The open cockpit offered no protection from bullets or the strong wind. There was no radio communication, the aircraft’s speed was only 120 km/h, and they flew at an altitude of three kilometers. Their only weapons were TT pistols.
They had no bomb bay. Sometimes they carried the explosive devices on their knees and dropped them themselves. They flew at night, making up to ten flights in a single day. They turned off the engine and the bombs fell silently on the enemy. They also flew behind enemy lines to deliver supplies to the guerrillas.
The Germans even rewarded anyone who shot down an aircraft from this unit with an Iron Cross.
The 586th Aviation Regiment stationed in Stalingrad, made up entirely of women, also played a prominent role in the war. The famous pilot Lydia Litvak, who earned the nickname The White Rose of Stalingrad, was a prominent member of this unit. With 12 aerial victories, she was considered an ace of Soviet aviation. Lidia died in combat on August 1, 1943, at the age of only 21.
In Leningrad, the artillery units were made up almost exclusively of women.
Maria Oktyabrskaya, the first woman in the world to be a member of a tank crew, was mortally wounded in northern Belarus in 1944 at the age of 38.
Zoya Kosmodemiánskaia, a heroine of the Soviet Union during World War II, carried out sabotage in the German rear. She was captured, tortured, and hanged on November 21. Zoya became a symbol of resistance to the Nazis.
Alexandra Samusenko was a commander of T-34 tanks and died at the age of 22 from war wounds on March 3, 1945.
Estonian-Soviet Helene Kullman was an intelligence agent who operated in Nazi-occupied Estonia. She was captured and executed on March 6, 1943, at the age of 23.
Soviet arms factories, which had been moved “screw by screw” to the east, relied on the selfless work of sisters, wives, daughters, and mothers, who also had the burden of feeding the people and producing for victory.
They worked until they dropped from exhaustion, driven by their faith in victory. Without them, without their dedication, it would have been impossible to defeat the enemy.
It was not only adults and women who took part in the fighting. Thousands of minors, the so-called “children of war,” also helped in the exploits of the Soviet Army.
Around 300,000 children and teenagers participated in resistance movements or on the front lines fighting against the Nazis.
Raúl Antonio Capote is a Cuban writer, professor, researcher, and journalist. He is the author of Juego de Iluminaciones, El caballero ilustrado, El adversario, Enemigo, and La guerra que se nos hace.