Anka the machine gunner is a real story. Executioner. The real story of Tonka the Machine Gunner Did Anka the Machine Gunner exist?

To save own life, she began to serve as an executioner for the German occupiers. For one execution she received real money. She shot almost 1,500 people. And all this in a year and a half. During the war she was nicknamed the Thin Machine Gunner. For the next three decades she was exemplary Soviet woman. She is Antonina Makarova-Ginsburg, Tonka the Machine Gunner, a biography, the real story of which will be told in the article.

Makarova’s ideal was Anka the machine gunner

Antonina Makarova was born in 1920 in one of the villages of the Smolensk province. However, according to some other information, she was born in the capital in 1923.

In the metric, her last name was indicated as Parfenova. The fact is that when she started studying at school, due to an oversight, the teacher mixed up not only her middle name, but also her last name. In the class journal, she wrote her down as Makarova. It was because of this that in all subsequent official documents Tonya was listed under that last name. This absurd accident subsequently helped her escape from justice for three decades.

Tonka the machine gunner, biography, whose family was nothing remarkable, happy childhood didn't have. The family of the future punisher lived quite poorly. Her mother had to work hard to raise her children. My small garden helped in this regard. But they also needed to be constantly engaged. Accordingly, combining household chores with raising a daughter was very difficult. She didn't have enough time for everything. And young Tonya, in her dreams, like any girl, hoped that her mother would buy her beautiful dress, new shoes with the goal of appearing on the local dance floor in this attire...

In addition to such hobbies, she also had her own ideal - Anka the machine gunner. As you know, this movie character also had a prototype. We are talking about Maria Popova. During the Civil War, in one of the battles, she replaced a deceased machine gunner. Ahead of events, let's say one thing: inspired by the image of M. Popova, Antonina also received a machine gun. Only now the character and prototype of the book and film “Chapaev” fought with enemies, and Makarova shot the condemned...

At school, young Tonya studied very diligently. True, she did not show much zeal for the exact sciences. She preferred subjects such as geography and history.

For eight years, Tonka the Machine Gunner, whose biography was not rosy, studied at a village school. In high school, she already studied at a Moscow school. The whole family moved there.

Having received a matriculation certificate, she entered college, then a technical school. She planned to become a doctor.

"Vyazemsky Cauldron" and retreat

When the war began, she went to the front, becoming a medical instructor. The German army was then advancing on the Soviet capital.

As a result, Makarova and her units found themselves completely surrounded, in the so-called. "Vyazma Cauldron" At some point, while retreating, she fell into the hands of the Germans. After some time, she managed to escape. Moreover, she escaped not alone, but together with soldier Nikolai Fedchuk.

Together they wandered through the forests, sometimes stealing to feed themselves. At the same time, they did not look for an opportunity to find partisans or break through to units of the Red Army.

In the process of this wandering, Fedchuk stopped standing on ceremony with the fairer sex and made her his “camp wife.” True, the involuntary “wife”, in fact, did not particularly resist.

At the beginning of 1942, the encirclement found themselves in the village where Fedchuk lived before the war. It was there that he admitted to Tonya that he was married and his family lived nearby. In a word, Makarova was left completely alone.

For several days, Antonina went home. At first, the villagers did not kick her out, but since they had enough worries of their own without her, they did not dare to keep the unknown woman for a long time. She tried to have an affair with one of the villagers. But in the end she was able to turn almost everyone against her local residents. She had to leave the village.

They say that Fedchuk’s betrayal and lack of physical and moral strength at that time finished her off. They say she has truly lost her mind. But it was only temporary. She wanted to survive. And at any cost.

Executioner's Rate

Antonina’s wanderings ended in the vicinity of the Bryansk village of Lokot. Let us remember that during the war, the so-called The Lokot Republic, which was founded by Russian collaborators, that is, henchmen of the Nazis.

The unfortunate nurse was detained by the police who took a fancy to her. They took me in, gave me food, offered me alcohol and raped me. True, the fact of this violence was very controversial. Because at that moment Tonya agreed to absolutely everything.

Thus, for some time, the former medical instructor worked with the police as a prostitute.

One day, very drunk, she was taken out into the street and given a Maxim machine gun - exactly the same as that of Anka the machine gunner.

In front of her stood people who were now about to be executed. Tonya was given the order: shoot. The massacre was not a big deal for her. And she felt no remorse. Of course, Makarova had a choice. She could have been among those shot. She could also become an executioner, which is exactly what happened. She chose the second option, hoping that later the war would write everything off anyway. Well, in the end, her old dream somehow came true - she became a machine gunner, like her favorite character. Her life also began to improve.

For the next day her superiors decided that working as a prostitute was not a suitable occupation for her. She does other jobs much better. In a word, she was offered to participate in executions on an ongoing basis. According to Makarova herself, the occupiers did not want to get their hands dirty. They believed that it would be more convenient if the condemned were shot by a Soviet woman.

As a result, when she agreed to the Germans’ offer, she was given a machine gun for her personal keeping. From now on she was an official - an executioner. The management offered her a salary of thirty marks. Also, after many months, she was finally given a bed. And Tonka the machine gunner lived (biography, photo - in the article) in a separate room at a local factory.

"Lead into nettles"

Antonina's daily routine as an executioner was too monotonous. She woke up, had breakfast, and then prepared her machine gun for execution. Meanwhile, the condemned were in the barn. In fact, it served as a kind of prison. This “chamber” accommodated exactly twenty-seven people. According to eyewitnesses, there was a constant eerie groan in the dungeon. The prisoners were crammed into the room until it was impossible to even sit down. And since the prison was never empty, the condemned were quickly dealt with. And immediately new unfortunates arrived on this death row.

When Antonina's machine gun was ready for execution, the condemned were taken to the execution pit and the sentence itself was carried out. Tonka the machine gunner finished off the survivors with a pistol to the head. By the way, the story of execution in Makarova’s jargon is “to lead into nettles.”

According to her testimony, she was just doing her job conscientiously. Moreover, for this “work,” as mentioned above, she received real German money.

At times she executed not only Soviet partisans, but also members of their families. True, she did not want to remember this at all and tried to forget about those whom she shot. And the doomed themselves did not know her. Therefore, she never felt remorse. However, I remembered the circumstances of one massacre until the last moment. An unknown young guy, who was sentenced to death, managed to shout to her: “We won’t see you now! Goodbye, sister!”

At times, Antonina Makarova (Tonka the Machine Gunner, whose biography is described in the article) allowed “marriage” in her work. So, several children were able to survive in this meat grinder. There was only one reason: due to their short stature, the bullets passed over their heads...

The villagers who buried the executed were able to take the unfortunate teenagers out and hand them over to the Soviet partisans.

The rumor about the bloody punisher Tonka the Machine Gunner spread throughout the Bryansk region. The partisans even decided to hunt her. Unfortunately, these searches seemed futile.

When Tonya finished her reprisal, she cleaned her favorite machine gun. In the evenings, she came to a German club, danced, drank with representatives of the Aryan nation, and then relaxed in the arms of officers and policemen.

Also, often at night Tonka the Machine Gunner, whose biography and life story are described in many historical documents, came to the death row and carefully examined the condemned. Either she was mentally preparing for the morning execution, or she was looking after the things of the doomed in advance. In any case, as an encouragement, she was given the opportunity to take the clothes of the dead. Over time, she acquired a colossal number of outfits.

Although there were serious disappointments in her work. Sometimes she complained that not only large blood stains remained on the clothes of those shot, but also holes from bullets...

Metamorphoses of the executioner

In the summer of 1943, Makarova’s life took another turn. Soviet troops began to liberate the Bryansk region. Accordingly, in light of the latest reports from the front, this did not bode well for her. But that same summer she was sent to a rear hospital to be treated for sexually transmitted diseases. In a word, she managed to escape from retribution at that time. Let us note right away that the Red Army and the partisans liberated Lokot in early September.

Makarova felt more than uncomfortable within the hospital walls. After all Soviet troops were approaching very quickly. The Nazis began evacuating, but they only transported Aryans.

Meanwhile, in the rear, Antonina managed to start another romance novel. The German chef became his lover. He was able to secretly take her to Ukraine, and then to Poland.

But she was very unlucky here. Her lover was killed, and the Nazis sent her to the death camp in Koenigsberg.

In 1945, the Red Army captured this city. Then Makarova used a stolen Soviet military ID. In this document it was written that from 1941 to 1944 she served in one of the medical battalions. Thus, Tonka managed to pass herself off as a Russian nurse, and she began working in a mobile hospital.

During the same period, the executioner Tonka the Machine Gunner, whose biography makes even the most cold-blooded people horrified, met one of the wounded soldiers. His name was Viktor Ginzburg. Just one week later, the lovers got married. Of course, the bride decided to take her groom's surname. And when the war finally ended, the young couple went to the city of Lepel - Ginzburg’s homeland.

Thus, Antonina Makarova, Tonka the Machine Gunner, whose biography aroused the contempt of everyone and who was hunted by the partisans for a long time, disappeared. Honored veteran, front-line soldier Antonina Ginzburg appeared. Only three decades later, Tonka the Machine Gunner, her biography and victims wartime suddenly surfaced...

Double life

When Soviet troops liberated not only Bryansk, but also Lokot, investigators discovered the remains of 1.5 thousand execution victims. Unfortunately, the investigation was able to identify only 200 of those executed. In addition, witnesses were summoned for questioning. The information was constantly updated and rechecked. But Tonka the Machine Gunner disappeared into thin air. There was no way they could find her trail.

And Tonka the machine gunner herself, whose biography and life after the war were getting better, became an ordinary, simple Soviet woman. She was raising her two daughters; she was invited to a meeting with schoolchildren, where she talked about her heroic past. She worked. She managed to find a job at the Lepel sewing factory. Antonina was responsible for product quality at the enterprise.

By and large, she was considered not only a very responsible, but also a conscientious worker. Her photograph was repeatedly hung on the honor board.

According to her former colleagues, Antonina always seemed withdrawn. She didn't talk much during the conversation. And when there were corporate holidays at the company, she hardly drank alcohol (apparently, so as not to let it slip).

In general, the Ginsburgs were respected people. And since they were front-line soldiers, they received all the benefits that veterans were entitled to. And, of course, neither the husband, nor family acquaintances, nor neighbors were completely aware that the honored person Antonina Ginzburg was the notorious Tonka the Machine Gunner...

Unexpected twist

Only in 1976 did the case of the Lokot punisher move forward. And the following happened. On one of the squares of Bryansk, an unknown man suddenly attacked a certain Nikolai Ivanin with his fists. The fact is that he was able to recognize the head of the German prison Lokot during the war. Ivanin, who had been hiding all this time, like Antonina, did not deny it and gave his testimony to the investigation. At the same time, he also mentioned Tonka the machine gunner (he had a short love affair with her). Of course, the suspect also told the investigators her last name.

It was this clue that made it possible to develop full list citizens of the USSR who bear such a name. Alas, law enforcement officers did not find the Makarova they needed on this list. They did not yet know that there were representatives of the fairer sex here who were registered under this surname at birth. Well, Tonka the Machine Gunner, as mentioned above, was originally recorded as Parfenova.

However, at first the investigators mistakenly managed to get on the trail of another Makarova, who lived in the city of Serpukhov. Ivanin had to agree to conduct an identification parade in this city. He was placed in one of the hotels, and the next day in his room he took his own life. The reasons for this suicide remain unclear to this day.

After these events, investigators began to look for all surviving witnesses who could remember Makarov's face. However, they did not identify her either.

But the search continued. We found the real Antonina almost by accident.

A certain Soviet citizen Parfenov was going abroad. To obtain permission to leave, he sent the appropriate form, which contained information about his relatives. This profile also included Parfenov’s sister, Antonina Makarova. Then it became clear that the school teacher, young Tonka, had made a mistake...

Jewelry work of operatives

Investigators had to work hard to find the Lokot executioner. They could not accuse an innocent person of such atrocities. Therefore, the honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg began to be carefully checked. Secretly, operatives brought witnesses to Lepel.

So, in 1978, law enforcement officers conducted an experiment. One of the direct witnesses came to the city. At the same time, under a fictitious pretext, Makarova was asked to go outside. And an eyewitness to the crimes watched Antonina from the window. She confirmed that the clothing factory employee is Tonka the Machine Gunner. However, this fact was not enough for an arrest.

Then the investigation decided to conduct another experiment. Two more witnesses arrived in Lepel. One woman pretended to be a social security employee. Makarova was summoned to allegedly recalculate her pension. Tonka the machine gunner was immediately recognized. Another eyewitness was on the street next to the building. She also identified Antonina. And only after that they decided to detain her. On this day, Makarova-Ginzburg went to see the head of the personnel department. The operatives stopped her and presented her with an arrest warrant. According to investigators, when she was arrested, she immediately understood everything and behaved absolutely calmly.

Renunciation

When Makarova ended up in the cell, she was transferred to Bryansk. At first, law enforcement officers were very afraid that the defendant would commit suicide. To prevent a possible suicide, a woman “whisperer” was placed with her. According to her, Makarova had no intention of taking her own life. She was quite sure that because of her retirement age the court would give her minimum term- three years. At the same time, she volunteered herself for questioning by the investigator. Tonka the Machine Gunner demonstrated enviable composure when answering direct questions. Biography ( documentary filmed in 2010) is told in the film “Retribution. Two lives of Tonka the Machine Gunner.” The presenter said that Makarova believed that there was simply nothing to punish her for. And, accordingly, all the sad events that happened were attributed solely to the war by Tonka the Machine Gunner.

The biography (the film tells details about this woman) said that when she was brought to Lokot, she also behaved very calmly. She herself admitted that during the war her name was the Thin Machine Gunner. Then the investigators led her to the execution ditch, near which she carried out the sentences. And the Lokot residents, seeing and recognizing her, spat after her.

Investigators asked her if she had nightmares after the mass shootings. Makarova said that this had never happened. By the way, a mental examination confirmed that Tonka the Machine Gunner is absolutely sane.

Investigators suggested that she communicate with her husband and children. She refused. And she decided not to even convey the news.

Meanwhile, Makarova’s unhappy husband was running around all the authorities. He was ready to write a complaint to Brezhnev himself and to the UN. He demanded the immediate release of his beloved wife and mother of his children. Investigators were forced to report what his wife was accused of. They say that the brave veteran, having learned the truth, turned gray overnight. The entire family renounced Antonina and left Lepel forever.

Inevitable Retribution

In the fall of 1978, the trial of Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg began in Bryansk, which turned out to be not only the last major trial in the Soviet Union of traitors to the Motherland, but also the only one when the punisher was tried.

Tonka the Machine Gunner's guilt in the execution of 168 people was documented. In addition, almost 1,300 civilians remained unknown victims of Makarova.

Tonka the Machine Gunner herself, whose biography appeared in many investigative reports, was sure that the punishment a priori could not be severe due to the passage of time. She was only worried that, because of the shame, she would have to move to another city and, accordingly, look for new job. To be honest, the investigators themselves believed that the court would show her leniency. Moreover, her post-war biography turned out to be exemplary.

But the court decided to impose a harsh sentence. On November 20, 1978, Tonka the Machine Gunner was sentenced to death. Makarov listened to Judge Makarov’s words absolutely calmly, but at the same time did not understand why this measure was so cruel. Then she explained: “After all, there was a war. Life turned out that way. And now my eyes hurt. I need surgery. Will they really not have mercy?

After the trial, Tonka the Machine Gunner, a biography whose history does not cause any regret, wrote appeals. She hoped for forgiveness, because the coming 1979 was supposed to be the Year of the Woman.

Unfortunately, the court decided to reject these requests. And on August 11, 1979, in the morning, at 6.00, the sentence was carried out... This is the life Tonka the machine gunner lived. A biography or documentary should be of interest to anyone who studies history. But no one will regret the fate of this woman.

"Birth" of Anka

Categories:

Movie characters
Fictional women
Fictional military
Fictional Russians
Jokes characters
Vasily Chapaev in popular culture
Women in wars

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Anka, Paul
Ankara Province

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On November 23, 1981, a certain Maria Andreevna Popova was buried at the Novokuntsevo cemetery in Moscow. As the 86-year-old woman bequeathed, with military honors. The coffin was escorted by the daughter of the deceased and well-known theater and film artists to the sound of gun shots. The deceased never had a direct relationship with the world of cinema. However, until her death, she had to “play the role” for which Joseph Stalin personally “approved” her.

The first version of the film "Chapaev" and simply Maria

In the early thirties, Stalin was brought to watch the film “Chapaev,” directed by the Vasilievs. The leader did not like the picture, he called the directors to his place. Joseph Vissarionovich suggested that they introduce a female fighter into the film, as well as indicate a “romantic line.”

The Vasiliev brothers, who were actually just namesakes, got down to business.

All the women who fought in the legendary 25th Chapaev Rifle Division were invited to the Red Army Museum. They were asked to tell stories from front-line life for a future film. There were a lot of women gathered, their stories were recorded by a whole squad of stenographers. But only the stories told by Maria Popova, a soldier of the Chapaev division, were selected. In the future, when writing the script, the wife of Commissioner Dmitry Furmanov, Anna, will call her by her name.

So easily Maria will become Anka the machine gunner.

"She will be the heroine"

The film about the heroes of the Civil War, released on screens across the country in 1934, was a tremendous success. His characters were perceived by the audience as real people, all the events seemed genuine. Spectators watched the film more than a dozen times. However, like Stalin himself, who was interested in the military exploits of Maria Popova.

“Mom said that he asked the Vasiliev directors if it really happened. “Yes,” they answered. He then said: “she will be the heroine,” recalls Maria Popova’s daughter Zinaida Mikhailovna.

Maria Popova herself at that time, knowing nothing, lived in... Berlin. And when she was called to Moscow to be declared a national treasure, she was very scared.

"Masha, rub your eyes with onion"

The future "Anka the machine gunner" was born in 1896 in the Samara province. At the age of 16 she was married to Ivan Popov. But she and her husband did not live long. Ivan Popov died shortly after the wedding.

“When they buried her husband (he, by the way, was not my father), the neighbors whispered: Masha, you should at least rub your eyes with onions so that there will be tears,” says Zinaida Popova. “He, as my mother recalled, often suffered from stomach pains And during another acute attack he died. And I still don’t know who my real father is. My mother took many secrets with her to the grave, including the secret about my father.”

After the death of her husband, Popova got a job as a nanny in a hospital. Then she worked at the Samara Pipe Factory. Here I joined the party. When the Civil War began, Maria took part in the battles for Samara.

“In 1918, when the White Czechs took the city with the support of the White Guards, my mother was captured, but she and several other soldiers managed to escape,” says Zinaida Popova. “Somewhere in the steppe they came across the advanced units of the 25th Chapaev Division.” .

In the division, Maria Popova initially served as an assistant doctor. In one of the battles, she crawled up to a soldier wounded in the arm, and he literally forced her to fire a machine gun, because he himself could not press two triggers at the same time. For this fight, Chapaev awarded her a watch. He later decided that Maria Popova’s place was in horse reconnaissance.

Together with Vasily Ivanovich, they fought for a year - until Chapaev’s death.

“Chapaev could not stand the presence of female non-fighters in his division”

“I must say right away that Vasily Ivanovich could not stand the presence of female non-fighters in his division,” says the granddaughter legendary division commander Tatiana Chapaeva. “He also quarreled with Furmanov precisely because he brought his wife Anna to the front. Vasily Ivanovich went into the commissar's hut and saw that some woman was lying in bed. Vasily Ivanovich demanded that Commissar Furmanov send Anna Nikitichna to the rear."

"If we talk about the nonsense that recent years managed to write and reproduce, then I undoubtedly give first place to the one who came up with the idea that Vasily Ivanovich and Anna Furmanova were lovers,” says Tatyana Chapaeva indignantly. - Secondly, to the one who got it from somewhere that supposedly Pyotr Isaev (Petka) a year later, when the soldiers held a memorial for Chapai, shot himself. With the motivation that it was he who did not save his commander. There is another very common myth. It’s as if the wife of the actor Leonid Kmit, who played the role of Petka, was so jealous of her husband of the movie Anka that she committed suicide.”

Tatyana Chapaeva added that in fact Pyotr Isaev was not the peasant simpleton as shown in the film. This highly educated officer never served as Chapaev’s orderly, but was an entruster for particularly important matters, and later the head of the communications brigade. In principle, there could be no love between him and Anka - Maria Andreevna Popova. And in real life It was she who taught him how to use a machine gun.

“I have been friends with Maria Andreevna’s daughter Zinaida Mikhailovna for many years. I often visited them in their house on Tverskaya. Maria Andreevna always seemed to me a very calm, reasonable person. Of course, I asked her a lot about my grandfather. After all, she, who served in The reconnaissance company of the Chapaev division, unlike me, knew my grandfather personally,” said Tatyana Chapaeva.

“He has a representative appearance, but still doesn’t know how to dress himself like a woman with taste.”

After the Civil War, Popova studied at Moscow State University at the Faculty of Soviet Law. And in 1931 she was sent to Berlin, appointing her as an assistant in the legal department of the trade mission.

A young lawyer, Maria Popova, arrived in Berlin wearing a colorful jacket, fastened with two large pins instead of buttons. This is how she appeared for the first time before Evgenia Alliluyeva, head of the personnel department of the Trade Mission.

“Of course, a devoted comrade to us. In January 1931, after graduating from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University, she was sent to work at the Soviet Trade Mission in Berlin. She speaks little German. She knows how to treat people. She has a representative appearance, but she still doesn’t know how to dress herself like a woman with taste.”

From the very first meeting, Popova and Alliluyeva became friends. Maria confessed to her that she was pregnant, whispered the name of the child’s father, and Evgenia kept this secret forever.

Maria learned to dress with taste from fashionista Evgenia Alliluyeva. By the time her daughter was born, she no longer stood out from the crowd of well-dressed Berlin Frau.

On a voluntary basis, Maria Popova was also appointed director of the club of the Soviet colony. All these positions provided opportunities for contacts and a certain freedom of movement. Maria Andreevna helped sent compatriots adapt to Germany and brought them together with the right people.

From the profile of Maria Andreevna Popova, an employee of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters:
“In 1931-1934, she worked at the Soviet Trade Mission in Berlin as a referent and chairman of the joint committee of trade unions of the Sovkolonia. An intelligent, fairly theoretically trained corporate employee. A social activist.”

“I don’t know what my mother did in Germany, but I saw her so rarely that I called her “Frau Popova.” And “mummy” - “Mutillein” - she called her nanny Ani. I spoke German and thanks to the nanny I was a very politicized child, - recalls Zinaida Popova. - Nanny voted for Hitler in the 1933 elections, because he gave everyone a job. She went to almost all the rallies, and she took me with her in a stroller. I told everyone: mouth is front, mouth is front! when the fascists came to power, I also told everyone to put their mouths to front!”

“Did your mother bring a machine gun with her?”

Soviet newspapers quickly picked up the news about the real prototype of Anka the Machine Gunner and made Maria Popova a real heroine.

Popova did not object: fame pleasantly tickled her pride. Of course, some of the fighting friends were upset. Many risked their lives no less than Popova, but she alone got the glory.

However, Maria had no time for this. She received a new assignment.

From the profile of Maria Andreevna Popova, an employee of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters:
"In November 1935, she was recruited to work in the RU of the Red Army. From May 1936 to May 1937, she was on a business trip in Stockholm through Intourist. A lot of practical intelligence and savvy. Works hard on Swedish. The character is calm and self-possessed."

Residents of the Soviet settlement in Stockholm greeted Maria Popova as a heroine. One boy asked Zina: “Did your mother bring a machine gun with her?”

Maria Andreevna developed an almost domestic relationship with the USSR Ambassador to Sweden Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai. They were very friendly.

In May 1937, Popova was informed that her business trip to Stockholm was over. With heavy forebodings, Maria Andreevna returned to Moscow. But so far everything was going well. She had a job, she was given an apartment on Tverskaya.

"Only Trotskyists beat children"

One day the doorbell rang. The call was persistent. It turned out that the neighbors were complaining about their daughter.

Zina organized a rally in the yard and explained to the children that adults were now conducting an operation in the Arctic Ocean to rescue the “Papaninites.” “Polar explorers are freezing,” said Zina, “they need clothes.” The kids ran to the Moscow River and threw their coats onto the floating ice floes. Zina told them that the ice floes would certainly wash out into the ocean.

“Mother took an old soldier’s belt from the wall and spanked me. She asked: “Why aren’t you crying, you bastard?” And I said: “I won’t. Only Trotskyists beat children,” recalls Zinaida Popova.

"Hero Chapaev walked through the Urals..."

Before the Great Patriotic War, arrests of fighters of the Chapaev division began.

Ivan Kutyakov was killed by the Chekists - he commanded the division after the death of Chapaev. When they came for Kutyakov, he shouted that he would not be released alive and began shooting at the guards. They returned fire.

Popova was not touched in those years. And in 1942 she was again called to the front to join the propaganda brigade.

Maria Andreevna took her daughter to her family in Kuibyshev, and she herself, as part of a lecture group, traveled to the fronts - raising the morale of the troops. After watching the film “Chapayev,” Maria Popova most often told the soldiers about the history of the creation of the song “Chapayev the Hero Walked Through the Urals.” She composed it after the death of the division commander.

One day, Alexander Alexandrov, the leader of the famous Red Banner Song and Dance Ensemble, heard the song. At his request, Maria Andreevna wrote a few more lines. “The Ural River is deep, the banks are steep, and the steppe and steppe are wide—that’s where our people beat the enemy.”

The war is over. Stalin died. The Khrushchev thaw began.

Sovremennik, CNN and the placebo effect

Friends of Maria Andreevna’s daughter increasingly began to come to the Popovs’ apartment in house number six on Tverskaya. Zinaida Mikhailovna had just graduated from the Institute of International Relations at that time. In the future, she will become the editor of the Moscow bureau of CNN, and will work in the bureaus of the Los Angeles Times and the Japanese newspaper Mainichi.

And then she introduced her mother to the young artists of the Moscow Art Theater, who decided to create their own theater - Sovremennik. Zinaida will marry one of them, actor Igor Vasiliev.

At that time, little-known young and talented artists were rehearsing the play “Forever Alive”. Maria Andreevna let them in, allocating one of the rooms in her apartment for night rehearsals.

Many years later, a sign will appear on the front door of entrance No. 8 in the house on Tverskaya that it was in Maria Andreevna Popova’s apartment that “essentially, the future Sovremennik theater was born.”

Of course, the youth pestered “Anka the Machine Gunner” with questions.

The story about the placebo effect, repeatedly told by Maria Andreevna, has always enjoyed constant success.

In the destroyed pharmacy of the small town, where the Chapaevites entered, there were two bags of soda. Nurse Popova loaded them onto a cart and brought them to the division. She cut the paper into strips, poured powder, rolled it up and wrote: “from the head”, “from the stomach” and distributed it to the fighters. It helped some.

The medical fame of the medical assistant Maria Popova then eclipsed the authority of the division doctor, who did not give such medicines.

The Chapaevites complained about the doctor to the division commander and cited Maria as an example.

The young artists laughed while listening to Maria Andreevna. She laughed with them. But it became more and more difficult to seem like a cheerful housewife.

Denunciation

In 1959, Popova was summoned to the party Central Committee. From her foreign outfits, Maria Andreevna chose the most formal one and went to Old Square. And when she returned, the housekeeper Marusya, who had served the Popovs for many years, sensing something was wrong, rushed to get medicine.

It turned out that several old Chapaevites wrote a letter to the Party Control Committee of the CPSU Central Committee, in which they reported that Maria Popova was actually Novikova, the daughter of kulaks from the village of Vyazovy Gai. That she fought on the side of the Whites, she was allegedly seen among the White Guards. And when the advantage is Civil War they began to take the Reds, forged a party card and came to the Chapaev division.

The main thing the signatories accused Popova of was: “She is not Anka.”

An employee of the Party Control Committee left Moscow on a special assignment to Maria Andreevna’s homeland - Kuibyshev, former Samara.

Still Anka the Machine Gunner

And then Maria Popova proved that she is still Anka the machine gunner.

As in that battle with the Kappelites, in the famous scene from the film about Chapaev, she decided to let the enemies get closer.

They began to appear in newspapers and magazines large quantities Interview with the famous Chapaevka Popova.

In them she said that she had never been the prototype of Anka the machine gunner, that this was a collective image. Maria Andreevna listed the names of her fighting friends who were worthy of no less glory than she was. Well, since Stalin called her Anka, she herself never claimed this. Opponents were confused.

And a man who had gone there on a special party assignment returned to Moscow from Kuibyshev. He worked conscientiously. The certificate submitted to the party Central Committee, a copy of which is still kept by the “daughter of Anka the machine gunner,” stated:

"Popova Maria Andreevna, a native of the village of Vyazov Gai, Samara province. Her maiden name was Golovin. Popova's father, a poor peasant Andrei Romanovich Golovin, was called up to serve in Black Sea Fleet, became one of the first Russian military divers. His last name is mentioned in the story Soviet writer Konstantin Paustovsky. During one of the dives he received decompression sickness, was demobilized and died when his daughter Maria Popova was 4 years old. Maria Popova's mother died when the girl was 8 years old.

From this age, Maria Andreevna worked as a laborer for wealthy fellow villagers, including the kulaks Novikovs. Popova developed a close relationship with this family. It was they who were evacuated during the Great Patriotic War Popova's daughter Zinaida. And it was precisely as a relative of the Novikovs that Popova passed herself off when she tried to escape from white captivity in 1918. Information from a witness, Popova’s fellow soldier, that during interrogation by the White Czechs she called herself Novikova, is stored in the secret archives of the Red Army.

At the age of 16, Maria Andreevna was married to a poor fellow villager, Ivan Popov. But a few days after the wedding, the husband died of inflammation of the peritoneum.

Since 1914, Maria Popova has been working in Samara. In 1717 she joined the Red Guard and took part in battles on the Dutov Front. In 1918, she was awarded a ticket as a member of the Bolshevik Party. The ticket was presented by Nikolai Shvernik, a member of the party cell of the Samara Pipe Plant. As part of the Chapaev division since June 18. Popova repeatedly carried out important command assignments: she worked in the Bolshevik underground, and prevented a counter-revolutionary mutiny in the First Socialist Regiment of Military Sailors. She served in cavalry reconnaissance and at the same time performed the duties of a medical assistant.

A person of unparalleled personal courage: during battles she repeatedly took command of cavalry crews instead of commanders who died or fled from the battlefield. Wounded, shell-shocked. Awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

In 1924, Army Commander Frunze personally sent her to study at the workers' faculty of the Kharkov Medical Institute. In 1928 she entered the Moscow state university. Further life path Maria Popova is not interested in the investigation."

“All that’s left is movies and jokes”

Popova was again summoned to the Central Committee. She was received by the Chairman of the Central Committee of Party Control Nikolai Ivanovich Shvernik. The same Shvernik who once handed her a party card when she worked in Samara at a pipe factory.

“He said to his mother: well, Marusya, did they torture you? Calm down, you are acquitted on all counts,” recalls Zinaida Popova. “She wanted to answer him that he could have stopped this torment long ago, but she just waved her hand and left.” .

That same evening, a company of Chapaevites gathered for a traditional meeting in the house of Commissioner Furmanov’s daughter Anna. As always, Boris Babochkin, who played the role of the legendary division commander, was at Chapaev’s gatherings.

“Mom says: now I’ll tell you a joke. Petka comes to Chapaev and asks: Vasily Ivanovich, where is Anka? - Yes, there she is, lying on the stove with radiculitis. - Well, why couldn’t she find a Russian? - says Petka, - Zinaida Popova recalls her mother’s story. “Babochkin’s face wrinkled, he began to shout at his mother: “How dare you, Marusya, retell these nasty jokes? And my mother says: “Just think, what does it matter? All that’s left is movies and jokes.”

Maria Andreevna died in the winter of 1981. No matter how much her daughter asked, even before her death she never told her her father’s name.

A little later, in a notebook that always lay on her mother’s bedside table, Zinaida Mikhailovna found a slightly crumpled photograph of Maria Andreevna’s old front-line friend, People’s Commissar of Education Andrei Bubnov, who was shot in 1938.

The first version of the film "Chapaev" and simply Maria

The Vasiliev brothers, who were actually just namesakes, got down to business.

So easily Maria will become Anka the machine gunner.

"She will be the heroine"

The film about the heroes of the Civil War, released on screens across the country in 1934, was a tremendous success. His characters were perceived by the audience as real people, all events seemed genuine. Spectators watched the film more than a dozen times. However, like Stalin himself, who was interested in the military exploits of Maria Popova.

“Mom said that he asked the Vasiliev directors if it really happened. “Yes,” they answered. He then said: “she will be the heroine,” recalls Maria Popova’s daughter Zinaida Mikhailovna.

Maria Popova herself at that time, knowing nothing, lived in... Berlin. And when she was called to Moscow to be declared a national treasure, she was very scared.

"Masha, rub your eyes with onion"

Together with Vasily Ivanovich, they fought for a year - until Chapaev’s death.

“Chapaev could not stand the presence of female non-fighters in his division”

“It must be said right away that Vasily Ivanovich could not stand the presence of female non-fighters in his division,” says the granddaughter of the legendary division commander Tatyana Chapaeva. “He also quarreled with Furmanov precisely because he brought his wife Anna to the front. Vasily Ivanovich came in to the commissar’s hut and saw that some woman was lying in bed. Vasily Ivanovich demanded that Commissar Furmanov send Anna Nikitichna to the rear.”

“If we talk about the nonsense that in recent years they have managed to write and propagate, then I undoubtedly give first place to the one who came up with the idea that Vasily Ivanovich and Anna Furmanova were lovers,” says Tatyana Chapaeva indignantly. “Second - to the one who I got it from somewhere that allegedly Pyotr Isaev (Petka) shot himself a year later, when the soldiers held a memorial for Chapay, with the motivation that it was he who did not save his commander. There is another very common myth, as if the wife of the actor Leonid Kmit. who played the role of Petka, became so jealous of her husband of the movie Anka that she committed suicide.”

Tatyana Chapaeva added that in fact Pyotr Isaev was not the peasant simpleton as shown in the film. This highly educated officer never served as Chapaev’s orderly, but was an entruster for particularly important matters, and later the head of the communications brigade. In principle, there could be no love between him and Anka - Maria Andreevna Popova. But in real life, it was she who taught him how to use a machine gun.

“He has a representative appearance, but still doesn’t know how to dress himself like a woman with taste.”

From the very first meeting, Popova and Alliluyeva became friends. Maria confessed to her that she was pregnant, whispered the name of the child’s father, and Evgenia kept this secret forever.

Maria learned to dress with taste from fashionista Evgenia Alliluyeva. By the time her daughter was born, she no longer stood out from the crowd of well-dressed Berlin Frau.

“Did your mother bring a machine gun with her?”

Soviet newspapers quickly picked up the news about the real prototype of Anka the Machine Gunner and made Maria Popova a real heroine.

Popova did not object: fame pleasantly tickled her pride. Of course, some of the fighting friends were upset. Many risked their lives no less than Popova, but she alone got the glory.

However, Maria had no time for this. She received a new assignment.

From the profile of Maria Andreevna Popova, an employee of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters:
“In November 1935, she was recruited to work in the RU of the Red Army. From May 1936 to May 1937, she was on a business trip to Stockholm through Intourist. She has a lot of practical intelligence and savvy. She works hard on the Swedish language. She has a calm, self-possessed character.”

Residents of the Soviet settlement in Stockholm greeted Maria Popova as a heroine. One boy asked Zina: “Did your mother bring a machine gun with her?”

Maria Andreevna developed an almost domestic relationship with the USSR Ambassador to Sweden Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai. They were very friendly.

"Only Trotskyists beat children"

One day the doorbell rang. The call was persistent. It turned out that the neighbors were complaining about their daughter.

"Hero Chapaev walked through the Urals..."

Before the Great Patriotic War, arrests of fighters of the Chapaev division began.

Popova was not touched in those years. And in 1942 she was again called to the front to join the propaganda brigade.

The war is over. Stalin died. The Khrushchev thaw began.

Sovremennik, CNN and the placebo effect

And then she introduced her mother to the young artists of the Moscow Art Theater, who decided to create their own theater - Sovremennik. Zinaida will marry one of them, actor Igor Vasiliev.

At that time, little-known young and talented artists were rehearsing the play “Forever Alive”. Maria Andreevna let them in, allocating one of the rooms in her apartment for night rehearsals.

Of course, the youth pestered “Anka the Machine Gunner” with questions.

The story about the placebo effect, repeatedly told by Maria Andreevna, has always enjoyed constant success.

The medical fame of the medical assistant Maria Popova then eclipsed the authority of the division doctor, who did not give such medicines.

The Chapaevites complained about the doctor to the division commander and cited Maria as an example.

The young artists laughed while listening to Maria Andreevna. She laughed with them. But it became more and more difficult to seem like a cheerful housewife.

Denunciation

It turned out that several old Chapaevites wrote a letter to the Party Control Committee of the CPSU Central Committee, in which they reported that Maria Popova was actually Novikova, the daughter of kulaks from the village of Vyazovy Gai. That she fought on the side of the Whites, she was allegedly seen among the White Guards. And when the Reds began to take the advantage in the Civil War, she forged a party card and joined the Chapaev division.

The main thing the signatories accused Popova of was: “She is not Anka.”

An employee of the Party Control Committee left Moscow on a special assignment to Maria Andreevna’s homeland - Kuibyshev, former Samara.

Still Anka the Machine Gunner

And then Maria Popova proved that she is still Anka the machine gunner.

As in that battle with the Kappelites, in the famous scene from the film about Chapaev, she decided to let the enemies get closer.

Interviews with the famous Chapaevka Popova began to appear in large numbers in newspapers and magazines.

"Popova Maria Andreevna, a native of the village of Vyazov Gai, Samara province. Her maiden name was Golovin. Popova's father, a poor peasant Andrei Romanovich Golovin, was called up to serve in the Black Sea Fleet, became one of the first Russian military divers. His name is mentioned in the story of the Soviet writer Konstantin Paustovsky received decompression sickness during one of the dives, was demobilized and died when his daughter Maria Popova was 4 years old. Maria Popova’s mother died when the girl was 8 years old.

From this age, Maria Andreevna worked as a laborer for wealthy fellow villagers, including the kulaks Novikovs. Popova developed a close relationship with this family. It was with them that Popova’s daughter, Zinaida, was evacuated during the Great Patriotic War. And it was precisely as a relative of the Novikovs that Popova passed herself off when she tried to escape from white captivity in 1918. Information from a witness, Popova’s fellow soldier, that during interrogation by the White Czechs she called herself Novikova, is stored in the secret archives of the Red Army.

At the age of 16, Maria Andreevna was married to a poor fellow villager, Ivan Popov. But a few days after the wedding, the husband died of inflammation of the peritoneum.

In 1924, Army Commander Frunze personally sent her to study at the workers' faculty of the Kharkov Medical Institute. In 1928 she entered Moscow State University. The investigation is not interested in Maria Popova’s further life path.”

“All that’s left is movies and jokes”

Maria Andreevna died in the winter of 1981. No matter how much her daughter asked, even before her death she never told her her father’s name.

Nurse Maria Popova and her film double, Anka the Machine Gunner.

Many famous film characters have real prototypes. Despite the fact that there was no Anka the machine gunner in the legendary Chapaev division, this character cannot be called completely fictitious. This image was given life by nurse Maria Popova, who once in battle actually had to shoot a machine gun instead of a wounded soldier.

It was this woman who became the prototype for Anka from the film “Chapaev”, included in the hundred best films peace. Her fate deserves no less attention than the exploits of the movie heroine.

Maria Popova

In 1934, directors Georgy and Sergey Vasilyev received the party's assignment to make a film about the victories of the Red Army. There was no Anka in the first version. Stalin was dissatisfied with the viewing and recommended adding a romantic line and female image, which would be the embodiment of the fate of a Russian woman during the Civil War. The directors accidentally saw a publication about nurse Maria Popova, who was forced by a wounded machine gunner to shoot from a Maxim on pain of death. This is how Anka the machine gunner appeared.

The story of her love with Petka was also invented - in fact, there was no romance between Chapaev’s assistant Pyotr Isaev and Maria Popova. In the first two years after the film's release, Stalin watched it 38 times. “Chapaev” was no less a success among the audience - huge queues lined up outside the cinemas.

Maria Andreevna Popova with her daughter

Maria Popova with her husband

As part of the 25th rifle division It wasn’t only Maria Popova who fought in Chapaeva – there were enough women there. But the story of the nurse impressed the filmmakers the most. In the same division was the wife of the red commissar and writer Furmanov, Anna, in whose honor she received the name main character film. By the way, in Furmanov’s story, on which the film was based, there was no such character.

Varvara Myasnikova as Anka the Machine Gunner

Varvara Myasnikova in the film *Chapaev*

Maria Popova was born into a peasant family in 1896. She lost her father at 4 years old, her mother at 8 years old. From this age, she had to work as a laborer for wealthy fellow villagers, including the kulaks Novikovs, which is why she was later accused of not being who she claims to be.

In 1959, soldiers from the same Chapaev division wrote a denunciation against Maria Popova, saying that she was supposedly the daughter of the kulak Novikov, fought on the side of the White Guards, and when the Reds had a superiority in the Civil War, she went over to their side. All this turned out to be untrue, but it cost her health

Still from the film *Chapaev*, 1934

In fact, Maria Popova married a poor fellow villager at the age of 16, but her husband soon died. In 1917, she joined the Red Guard and took part in the battles for Samara. In 1918 she became a member of the party, and in the same year she became part of the Chapaev division. She was not only a nurse - she served in cavalry reconnaissance and performed the duties of a military doctor. There is one curious incident related to this, told by Maria Popova herself. One day, from a destroyed pharmacy, she brought two bags of soda to the division - there was nothing else there. I cut strips of paper, scattered powder into them and labeled “from the head”, “from the stomach”, etc. Some fighters claimed that it helped them.

Anna Nikitichna Furmanova-Steshenko