Vera Zakharovna Khoruzhaya was born on September 27, 1903 in Bobruisk, Belarus. Byelorussia. From 1924 to 1932, he was the secretary of the underground CC of the CSM of Western Belarus and a member of the CC of the CSM of Poland. Since 1941 – one of the leaders of the party underground in Vitebsk region.
On the bank of the Western Dvina, in the very center of Vitebsk there is a machine-tool plant. In the basement of the administrative building of the plant there is a branch of the Regional Museum of Local Lore. Low, long stone bags, walls more than a meter thick divided between them, dense darkness hiding in the corners, huge shadows rushing on the walls and ceiling – this is how the cellar appears to the museum visitors.
In this stone bag sat the glorious daughter of the Belarusian people, fearless revolutionary, ardent Soviet patriot Vera Zakharovna Khoruzhaya. Dozens of people stare at the letters that say so much to the heart of every person, scratched almost under the very vault of “The Chorus …”. The word seems not to be finished, most likely in the dying minutes when the executioners were already standing at the doors of the underground cell. People have been standing here for a long time, bowing their heads in front of the inscription, paying deep respect to the bright memory of Vera Zakharovna Khoruzhaya, her friends, with whom she fearlessly fought against the Nazi invaders.
Faith studied at the women’s gymnasium of Mozyr. In March 1920, Mozyr was captured by the White Polish troops. Gymnast Vera had to go to the mill in the village of Rogali. Faith already had a good understanding of the situation and explained to rural boys and girls the situation in Soviet Russia. As soon as Mozyr was released in June 1920 by the Red Army, Vera began teaching at a village school.
For decades Vera Zakharovna has been associated with the youth of Belarus and Poland. About this Faith wrote well in her book “Letters of Will” (ed. “Young Guard”, 1931).
In 1935 Vera Zakharovna went to Kazakhstan, to Balkhash – to a new construction site. Alexei writes in his memoirs about the years she lived in Balkhash.
Timofeyevich Khvedantsevich, one of the first builders of the Balkhash Mining and Metallurgical Plant, head of the construction of the CHP-stroy.
“Faith was appointed an instructor of the district committee and soon her name became known to the entire team of “Pribalhashstroy” as a tireless, principled, with a warm heart, responsive and sensitive comrade.
P.I. Malyshev – a former instructor of the Pribalkhash district committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (b) – remembered about V. Z. Khoruzhey: “Few people knew in that distant time what a difficult way she had gone in life, what a deep devotion to the party business burned her heart. Determined, volitional in nature, she could be sharp during his performances and at the same time had a heartfelt responsiveness, was able to and morally support anyone.
The citizens of Balkhash made their invaluable contribution to the victory over Hitler’s hordes… But not all of them were destined to return to their factory, to their relatives. Neither did Vera Khoruzhaya. She died in the autumn of 1942 in the rear of the enemy, performing a combat mission.
Kornilova-Khoruzhaya group was based in a partisan detachment near Vitebsk. The task of the underground was to penetrate the city and establish a network of informants to collect operational information about the enemy. The first attempts to enter the city showed that the documents are not reliable, and the underground work is hampered by the active activities of the German counterintelligence agencies. But despite this, the group continued to perform the task. Thanks to the data of the underground, Soviet aircraft several times hit ammunition and fuel depots.
In early 1942, Vera Khoruzhaya went to Moscow to prepare for illegal work in the occupied territories. In August 1942, she crossed the front line and arrived in Vitsebsk at the head of a special group. According to the documents prepared by the Center, she was listed as Anna Sergeyevna Kornilova.
On November 13, 1942, there was a failure. In November 1942, Vera Khoruzhaya was arrested by the Nazis at the factory apartment. Sophia Pankova and Klavdia Bordacheva, Vasily Vorobiev, his wife Agafya and Maria Vorobieva, sent to her for communication from the partisan detachment, were detained along with her. Neither how the Nazis died, nor where the underground fighters captured by the Nazis are buried, remains unknown.
The failure of the group in the squadron became known only on November 26. It is only known that one of the members of the group gave her real name “Faith”, and the Germans also managed to decipher the reports of the group. Anna Kitashova, a scout for the army reconnaissance group, became one of the few who got out of Vitebsk special prison of the SD alive. On December 3, 1942, she ended up in a cell where Vera was also present. According to Kitashev, because of the beatings, Khoruzhaya could no longer walk. After three days of inhuman torture and bullying, Vera Khoruzhaya was executed on the territory of the former 5th railway regiment without giving out any information.
Awarded the Order of the Red Banner (posthumously). The unknown circumstances of the underground woman’s death caused that only in 1960 by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on May 17, 1960 Vera Zakharovna Khoruzhaya was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin (posthumously).
The name of Vera Zakharovna Khoruzhaya is immortalized in the names of streets in the cities of Minsk, Balkhash, Brest, Karaganda, Bobruisk, Grodno, Bykhovsk, Pinsk, Mogilev, Tulchin, Mozyr, Volsk, Gomel, Novogrudok and Vitebchka, the villages of Koesov, Telekhany, Bychikha, Vitebsk region.
Monuments of Vera Zakharovna Khoruzhey – busts, memorial plaques – are in Mozyr, Bobruisk, Pruzhany, Balkhash, in many schools, at enterprises and universities. Poems and poems, songs and cantatas and two documentaries are dedicated to her.
The name of Vera Khoruzhaya is infinitely important to the Balkhash people, they consider Faith to be their countryman, they keep the memory of it sacred.
The material is published based on the book published in Bolashak Baspa and on the Internet.
Qaharman karagandylyktar = Heroes of Karaganda [Text]: a collection of biographical information / edited by J. S. Akylbaev, A. A. Abdakimov, N. O. Dulatbekov, R.K. Omarbekova. – Karaganda: Bolashak-Baspa, 2000. – – 146 p.
