Chaikina, Elizaveta

Born Aug. 28, 1918, in the village of Runa, Peno Raion, Velikie Luki (now Kalinin) Oblast; died Nov. 22, 1941, in the settlement of Peno. Participant in the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45; Hero of the Soviet Union (Mar. 6, 1942, posthumously). Member of the Communist Party from 1939.

Chaikina was the daughter of a peasant. In 1933 she was made head of a village reading room. She became secretary of the Peno raion committee of the Komsomol in 1939, and she served as secretary of the underground Peno raion committee of the Komsomol after the fascists invaded and occupied the area. In November 1941, having been betrayed, she was captured by the Fascists, cruelly tortured, and shot to death.

Enterprises, schools, and Pioneer brigades have been named for Chaikina. The Chaikina Museum of Komsomol Glory is located in Kalinin, and a monument to Chaikina (1944, sculptor N. V. Tomskii) has been erected in the settlement of Peno.