Natalia Kovshova

Born Nov. 26, 1920, in Ufa; died Aug. 14, 1942, near the village of Sutoki-Biakovo, present-day Staraia Russa Raion, Novgorod Oblast. Participant in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45; a sniper-fighter; Hero of the Soviet Union (Feb. 14, 1943, awarded posthumously). Member of the Komsomol from 1938.

In 1940, Kovshova graduated from secondary school in Moscow. After sniper training school, she went to the front in October 1941 as part of the Moscow Communist Division of the People’s Volunteer Corps. By the end of a fierce battle at the village of Sutoki-Biakovo, of the unit defending the village only Kovshova and Masha Polivanova were left alive. They allowed the Hitlerites to come close and then blew themselves and the surrounding enemy up with their last two grenades. Kovshova’s name has been affixed permanently on the roll of one of the units of the Soviet Army. A street in Moscow was named after her.