Defending Leningrad: Women Behind Enemy Lines (Part I: Inna Konstantinova; Part II: Masha Poryvayeva and Part III: Zoya Kruglova Baiger)

by Nikolai Vissarionovich Masolov, Kazimiera J. Cottam

Release Date: 02 March, 1998

Edition: Paperback

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A teenager's war

We live (as western Europeans or Americans) in a culture where “war” is something far away, usually on the other side of a TV screen. Our kids are living sheltered lives – and often we would like to see them even more protected. So, if it’s always difficult to understand the motivations behind a soldier’s will to fight, it’s even more difficult when the soldier is a 18th years old girl. Born and bred in a cultured family, she could have easily avoided being involved, and instead escaped to choose the worst kind of war – partisan duty behind German lines on the Eastern Front, paying the ultimate price for this choice. There could be a strong potential for the worst rhetoric on the “beauty” of patriotism and self-immolation, but “Defending Leningrad” (another entry on prof. K.J. Cottam series of books on Soviet women’s role during WWII) avoid these simplifications, giving us an invaluable insight on a teenage mind reacting to the reality of conflict.

“Defending Leningrad” is actually a collection of writings. The emotional core is the diary and letters of Ina Konstantinova, the above mentioned teenage, who volunteered to join a partisan brigade stationed behind German lines on the Leningrad front from 1942 to 1944. She worked as a scout collecting intelligence on German troop movement, was arrested several times (always escaping fortuitously), and finally was killed while covering her comrades retreat when her unit was surrounded by German security troops. It’s a remarkable document in its sparseness, its simple, almost banal candour.

Before the war, we see Ina being emotional after reading Victor Hugo “The Miserables” (typically, she idolised Jean Valjean but despised Cosette) and Jack London “Martin Eden”; daydreaming on her future; getting romantic – all summed up, being a very ordinary teenager of her time. The was comes as a big shock, but in her heart Ina seems to be unchanged, at least until her boyfriend is KIA on the front. This event, plus a confused desire to “do something more” – and a not-so-vague longing for independence and adventure – precipitate her choice. The letters to her mother and sister and her diary’s entries from the front reveal a mix of emotions: fear, homesickness, pride for her role but also horror for what she’s seeing – and not always confined to Nazi’s actions, see her reaction to the execution of a collaborationist. She does what she can to reassure her mother that after all everything is OK, that her dad (actually, the Intelligence Chief of her brigade) is protecting her. She’s hardening (at one point she remarks matter-of-factly that her “bodycount” amount to 15 Germans killed), but even if she tries to hide it, the war hardships are progressively taking a toll on her resolve. She never doubt that what she’s fighting for is right, but her unexpressed desire to find again the pre-war serenity is highlighted but the banality of most of what seems important to her – her family well being, getting food and clothes, her young sister’s studies. The abrupt ending of the document seems only to highlight this loss.

Ina’s diary (originally published as “The Girl From Kashin”), is not a literary masterpiece, and you’ll not find the harrowing passages of Anne Frank’s famous book. But this – in my opinion – just add to its sincerity. And compared to it, “Defending Leningrad” other sections are more problematic. The first is Ina’s father tale on his daughter predicament. It’s an interesting counterpoint, but raises more questions that it solves: was he right? Torture and a painful death were the usual fate of captured female partisans - doubters can look the pictures a page 71-72 of Erickson’s “Eastern Front In Photographs”, and remember that such horrors happened even on the Western Front. How could a father rationally send his daughter to face such risks, even for a cause that he sees as good? Ina’s dad never answers, and this silence is revealing: but truth is that we don’t have an answer as well.

The last two pieces are straightforward narratives dealing with the fate of two of Ina’s comrades-in-armes. “Masha’s Birch Trees” is a short story on the life – and death – of Masha Pryvayeva, another partisan scout that was captured and gruesomely executed by German troops in summer 1942. It’s a sad piece, and seems to underscore the problems I mentioned before (Ina, sent in mission together with Masha, barely escaped the same fate). The last, "The Secret Of Zoya Zuglova”, tells us of a girl who did spywork for the Soviet “socialising” with German officers, just to be tortured and executed when caught.

Prof. Cottam’s translation is impeccable, as impeccable are the notes punctuating and explaining the text, giving us the correct historical perspective to evaluate a book that is, without doubt, an exceptional document on the history of partisan warfare on the Eastern Front.

Defending Leningrad: Women Behind Enemy Lines

K. J. Cottam's books are invaluable. This topic has been so neglected by historians in the West, and Cottam's books have done much to rectify the situation. They are a must read.