Memory is our history. How a schoolchild will look at her, this will be our tomorrow. Of course, the history of the war was written in blood, and the more time passes, the more calmly people, including children, will perceive its cruelest facts. But they should never stop getting excited about them.
May 3, on the eve of the great holiday of Victory Day, employees of library branch No. 18 organized a meeting of children with a veteran of the Great Patriotic War at Belgorod school No. 11 Maria Denisovna Koltakova called “I had the honor to touch Victory».
Opening the meeting, library employee Alexandra Alyabyeva reminded those present of those distant and terrible years, of the courage and fortitude of those who defended the Motherland, and that the most important award for all veterans is the memory of the younger generation about the feat of our people in the Great War.
Journalist Olga Severina said that Maria Denisovna marched with a medical battalion from Lipetsk to Prague from 1942 to 1945. Carried out more than 300 wounded from the battlefield. Medical instructor Koltakova received her first award - “Medal for Courage” in Voronezh from the hands of commander Ivan Chernyakhovsky for pulling 25 wounded soldiers out from under fire. Fragile girls died along with the soldiers. Of the 250 medical instructors with whom Maria Denisovna shared the hardships of military life, she is the only one alive today.
Maria Koltakova is an amazing woman. At 92, she took to the skies on a hang-glider, and at 94, she made a parachute jump from a height of 3,000 meters in memory of her brother Evgeniy, who died in 1945 on the Kuril Islands. This year Maria Denisovna celebrated her 95th birthday. She says that she herself can hardly believe this figure...
Maria Denisovna told the guys about how she was surprised by the news about the beginning of the war, how then everything suddenly changed and faded, how she and her friends decided to get to the front by any means. Maria Denisovna remembered the most vivid episodes, how she saved the wounded, and her meetings with those rescued many years later.
The veteran answered the children’s questions and wished the schoolchildren to grow up to be a worthy generation that in the future will be able to protect our Fatherland and our borders from enemies.
The schoolchildren, in response, wished Maria Denisovna good health and expressed great gratitude for the fact that the current younger generation has someone to look up to and follow as an example, and as a token of gratitude they presented a memorable gift and flowers.
In order to once again honor the feat that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers accomplished for the sake of our peaceful life, the memory of those who fell in the Great Patriotic War, a moment of silence took place.
The students were so imbued with the meeting with the veteran that even after it ended they came up, asked questions, congratulated and did not want to let the guest go.
What was heard will not pass without a trace and will remain in the young hearts of children. This was evident from their caring faces.
Nadezhda Sapronova, head of the library-branch No. 18 of the Central Library System of Belgorod
Maybe the “Golden Mean of Planet Earth”, which is located on Mount Uzun Syrt in Crimea, is that energetically attractive place where dreams come true? Otherwise, how can we explain the fact that it was here that Maria Denisovna Koltakova, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, a participant in the Battle of Kursk, and a disabled person of the first group, found the embodiment of her thoughts and aspirations?
Throughout her life, since joining the OSOVIAKhM, she has passed through both front-line and peaceful roads, and today, as before, she is in service and is an Honorary member of the regional branch of DOSAAF of the Belgorod region.
For active public activities in the military-patriotic education of youth, active promotion of a healthy lifestyle and sports on her 95th anniversary, she was awarded the medal “90 Years of DOSAAF” and “For Services to the City of Belgorod.” Her portrait hangs in Belgorod on the city Board of Honor.
Wherever Maria Koltakova is, in Crimea or the Donbass, in schools or military units, everywhere she is a welcome guest, admired and taken as an example.
It all started in 2013 with the arrival of participants in the Battle of Kursk from all over Ukraine in Belgorod. They visited the “Third Military Field of Russia” museum in Prokhorovka, the military memorial in Kursk, the dugout of K. Rokossovsky, laying flowers and paying tribute to the fallen comrades and the memory of their wounded front-line youth. Gray-haired heads turned silver, bowed in mournful silence, the chime of military awards flowed restrainedly and solemnly in the Belfry, and at that moment they were all young...
And when an invitation came from Kyiv to take part in the celebrations dedicated to Liberation Day, Maria Denisovna, who believed that she was no longer at the age to make long journeys, could not refuse her fighting friends. When everyone who had arrived for the celebrations gathered on the Mound of Glory, it turned out that of all the present delegations from the hero cities, she was the only one who liberated Kyiv.
She is invited to schools, colleges, universities. But what could a grandmother, who is over 90, be interested in for our advanced computerized youth? Number of awards? Their cost? When they asked her such questions, she calmly answered - she didn’t count. And the price for each is the blood and death of comrades. She does not know how many years of life God has allotted to her on this earth. But in every day, in every minute, he wants to leave a memory of his friends and comrades and what happened. And most importantly, the awareness that this should not be forgotten. As well as about what happened in the Kuril Islands in August-September 1945, where her brother Evgeniy Shamaev died. And to whom she dedicated her first parachute jump.
Before the war, Evgeniy worked as a teacher at school and was involved in parachuting. And Maria’s dream would have remained a dream if... If it weren’t for her tenacity, perseverance, a little bit of luck and a drop of a miracle. When, having unsuccessfully gone through all the authorities, from the DOSAAF instructor to the commander-in-chief of the Airborne Forces and being refused everywhere, she turned to Father Frost in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, he promised to fulfill the veteran’s wish. And let the skeptics shrug their shoulders in bewilderment, the wish came true. On September 12, 2015, on Mount Klementyeva (Uzun-Syrt) in Crimea, Maria Denisovna Koltakova made a tandem jump with Dmitry Berdnikov from a height of 3000 meters.
Boris Nebreev, the head of the Para-Crimea sports complex, gave the go-ahead for the jump, not yet imagining that exactly two years later, on September 16, 2017, he and Maria Koltakova, as part of the Russian national team, would jump together in tandem during the 2nd international festival for disabled people in parachute jumping.
And this will happen in Belarus, a republic that is firmly and harmoniously intertwined with the fate of our front-line soldiers. And no wonder. After all, Zinaida Tusnolobova-Marchenko, a fellow soldier of Maria Koltakova (Shamaeva), is from Belarus. Never once, not for a single day, did Maria forget about her friend. At all meetings she spoke not about herself, but about her comrades, and first of all, about Zina.
Maria Koltakova (Shamaeva) was born in the Penza region, and Zinaida Tusnolobova-Marchenko in the Vitebsk region. But, by the will of fate, the girls received their formation, education and iron character in Kuzbass. From there they left together in 1942 as part of the 303rd Rifle Siberian Volunteer Division as volunteers for the front. Masha, having reached Prague, having received a shell shock and two wounds, returned home with dignity: the Order of Glory 3rd class, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class, medals “For Courage”, “For Military Merit”, “For the Duklinsky Pass” and etc.
Zinaida Tusnolobova-Marchenko was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Star, the Red Banner, the Gold Star medal, Florence Nightingale, Hero of the Soviet Union. In the winter of 1943, near Kursk, while rescuing the commander, she received wounds to her arms and legs. And when, drowning in the snow, bleeding, she finally crawled to him, she realized that it was too late. Due to wounds and loss of blood, she could not return and could not help herself. So Zina would have remained on the battlefield among the corpses, if not for the scouts who found her frozen to the snow, returning from a combat mission. Zina was saved. But due to severe wounds, gangrene and frostbite, having undergone many operations, she was left without arms and legs. This did not break the girl. She wrote an appeal to a front-line newspaper asking the soldiers to avenge her and received more than 3,000 responses to the appeal. With her name the soldiers went into battle. And guns, tanks and planes came to the front with the inscription on board “For Zina Tusnolobova!”
In honor of her friend from Polotsk, a medical instructor, Maria Koltakova (Shamaeva) came from Belgorod to Belarus to dedicate her jump to her at the international festival “Sky Open to All.”
And, she believes, the festival in Belarus could be named after Zinaida Tusnolobova-Marchenko. The fallen knew how to win, the living must remember! - Maria Koltakova is sure.
Zinaida Tusnolobova-Marchenko proved her inflexibility of will and decisiveness of character through the example of her feat, inspiring, impressing and calling not to give in to circumstances, but to live and fight.
Maria Denisovna proves this by personal example: from 2015 to 2017, she, a disabled person of group 1, category of those “over 90”, became a five-time record holder of the Russian Book of Records, she has three parachute jumps, a hot air balloon flight, on a hang-glider, on a glider (with performing a corkscrew and a Nesterov loop), diving under water with divers.
We learned that Maria Denisovna Koltakova (Shamaeva) was included as an Honorary Member of the Russian national team from the coordinator of the festival “Sky Open to All” Sergei Potekhin - on September 8, during her jump in Crimea on Mount Uzun-Syrt from a height 4200 meters.
In Kolodischi, on the first day of the Open Championship of the Republic of Belarus in wheelchair dance sports, the grand opening of the festival took place, where all participants from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Monaco, France met and realized that the planet of sports that connected them invisible bonds for these few days, full of friendly participation, friendly smiles and open hearts.
The girls shone in their dance outfits, the partners discreetly and carefully honed every gesture, the audience did not hold back their emotions, encouraging the dancers with exclamations and applause. And even Maria Denisovna, despite all prejudices, in order to show and prove that there is never a need to swear and irreparable things can happen to anyone, having learned that her dance partner’s name is the same as her brother’s, Zhenya, she trusted him and went on stage to dance , sitting in a wheelchair!
And the fact that this can happen when you don’t expect it at all was confirmed by the stories of the guys: Artyom Moiseenko from Vladivostok, after an accident, found the strength not only to continue living, but also became a successful entrepreneur. He organized a public organization with more than 600 members, and holds festivals, competitions, and off-site events with them. Elected as a deputy of the City Duma.
Or Lyuba Mokhor from Belarus, who received a gunshot wound to the spine. Winner of wheelchair dance competitions. She got married and arrived at the festival with her husband and children, of whom she has three!
Alexey Talai was blown up by a mine at the age of 16. Currently, he is a businessman and provides charitable assistance to those who need it. He performs by invitation in different countries, has studied several foreign languages, and got married. Father of four children.
Music, smiles, dancing, congratulations, awards, overflowing positivity, this is what I remember about the first day. And at the center of all this was the Belgorod “iron” grandmother. For whom it was not unusual to see the injuries that she saw during the Great Patriotic War, but it was bitter to realize that she sees this in peacetime.
Already on the second day of the festival, when the teams arrived at the Borovaya airfield, the participants felt as if they had known each other for a long time. Some, like Mikhail from the city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region, captivated listeners with rapping and his music videos, some with his strength exercises, some with incendiary dancing. And maybe it’s even good that the weather that day was bad. It was possible to train with qualified professionals in performing free-fall figures with alternating turns, discuss the jump with the operator, just relax, chat, and play tennis.
When the French Ambassador to Belarus Didier Canesse came to the Minsk DOSAAF Borovaya airfield to support his fellow countrymen - participants in the competition, Marie Claude Feydeau, President of the French Parachuting Federation, introduced him to Maria Koltakova, a participant in the Battle of Kursk, where, together with her, in the sky, the pilots of the French Normandie-Niemen squadron fought.
The day ended with a tour of the competition participants to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Minsk made an indelible impression on everyone with its scale, cleanliness, landscape design, architecture, new buildings, monuments, forests and excellent roads, on which during all the days we did not see a single traffic jam, but the museum was beyond praise. All exhibitions are designed in the same style, everything is permeated with warmth and a soul lives in each exhibit.
Having learned that Maria Koltakova fought together with Zinaida Tusnolobova, museum workers came up to hug the veteran and express their respect. Maria Denisovna stood for a long time at the stand with a photograph of her friend, mentally talking to her and promising to keep her word and make a parachute jump in her honor. The front-line soldier was leaving the museum when everyone had already left. And in the Book of Reviews there was an entry with words of gratitude from the Great Patriotic War veteran Maria Koltakova (Shamaeva), born in 1922...
I would like to say that in the fate of Maria Denisovna, who before each trip takes a blessing from priest Vladimir Mironenko, rector of the temple in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Vsetsaritsa” in the city of Belgorod, the stars aligned in such a way that all the people she met on her way to her dream turned out to be irreplaceable assistants, and their seemingly unnoticeable help turned out to be an invaluable component of success. On the first day of our arrival, Yuri Stefanovich helped us a lot, who, putting aside all his affairs, accompanied us to Kolodishchi, called Valery Kolomiets, helped us get to our destination, where, thanks to Sergei Potekhin, they were waiting for us.
The third day of the festival was a pleasant surprise with good weather. Helicopters arrived at the airfield, the groups loaded up, took to the sky, completed the task, and landed. The video taken by the operator was immediately given to the panel of judges, the parachutes were assembled... Movements were repeated, equipment was checked, everything was spinning, rushing... Maria Denisovna alone, maintaining Olympic calm, sat near the tent, above which the flags of Russia, Crimea and the city of Belgorod fluttered, and was again ready to conquer the sky, proving once again, not only to herself, but to the whole world, why her generation won in 1945!
Maria Denisovna Koltakova, as promised, dedicated her third jump on an MI-2 helicopter to her front-line friend from Polotsk (Belarus), Hero of the Soviet Union Zinaida Tusnolobova-Marchenko. At the closing of the festival, Jerome David and Marie-ClaudeFeydeau, President of the French Parachuting Federation, presented Maria Denisovna Koltakova with a Certificate of Participation in the Competition, a souvenir with an image of the Eiffel Tower and an offer to visit Paris. Artyom Moiseenko, for his part, invited her to Vladivostok.
Therefore, I can’t guess where our five-time record holder in the Russian Book of Records will celebrate her 96th birthday. But I am 100% sure that old age will not find her at home!
Olga Severina,
Belgorod
An amazing woman, Maria Denisovna Koltakova, lives in Belgorod. Her life was extremely eventful - there was room for both exploits and a quiet life. But the most amazing thing began to happen to my grandmother after she was 93 years old. It was then that she entered the Russian Book of Records for the first (but not the last) time - despite her venerable age, she jumped with a parachute.
Maria Denisovna Koltakova was born on Old New Year - January 14, 1922. During the war, she was a nurse and served as part of the 121st Rylsko-Kyiv Rifle Division from Voronezh to Prague. She carried out the wounded on the Kursk Bulge, participated in fierce battles in Voronezh, and in the liberation of Kharkov, Sumy, and Kyiv.
Maria Denisovna has many awards to her name, and the war definitely became a landmark event for the woman, but it was far from the last in which she had to show her courage.
The newspapers first talked about Maria Koltakova three years ago. Then the grandmother - and she was 93 years old at the time - jumped with a parachute in tandem with an instructor. Maria dedicated this jump to the memory of her brother, who died during the Kuril landing operation in 1945.
“Zhenya [brother] was five years older than me,” says Maria Denisovna. “Before the war, he was involved in parachuting. On December 25, 1937, he was drafted into the army. He served in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. And with the outbreak of the war with Japan, he was sent to the Kuril Islands.
During the war, Maria's mother received two funerals - both for Maria and for her brother. When Maria crossed the front line with the scouts, she was wounded, and the girl was left to wait for her comrades in a certain place. But the bombing began, and Maria had to hide, so her returning colleagues did not find her and sent a message to headquarters about her death. Two days later the girl found hers. But no one knew what exactly happened to Zhenya, her brother, whether he was buried or not, how he died and where exactly. “The thought of making a jump in memory of him haunted me,” says Maria Denisovna.
“I’m no longer afraid of anything,” the grandmother comments on her risky decision, “But I’ve never been afraid.” Then, in 2014, Maria Denisovna remembered her desire to jump with a parachute and visit Prague again. And that same summer, the Council of Veterans of the Kirov District and the Para-Crimea sports club helped her realize her dream. And the following spring, on Victory Day, Maria Denisovna was already in Prague and Berlin.
Another dream of Maria Denisovna was to walk through the battlefields where she walked along with her division. And this dream also became a reality for her - together with the military-patriotic club “Red Carnation” she began to study this path. “Maria does not miss the events that we hold in Kursk. She is a regular guest at all our rallies and conventions,” comments the head of the club.
When Maria turned 95, she took to the skies again - this time on a non-motorized plane. Together with the pilot, she experienced for herself what it was like to be on an airplane during a spin, a loop, and a flip. After the flight, when asked if she was scared, Maria Denisovna said, “It’s normal. Didn’t flinch, didn’t falter.”
And this year my grandmother rode on a go-kart for the first time in her life. She completed five laps of 400m each. To do this, she had to put on equipment (“Like a superhero,” her grandmother commented) and then drive around the go-kart track at high speed. Before that, my grandmother flew in a hot air balloon, hang-glided, and scuba dived.
“My credo is not to moan or complain, but to rejoice in every day given by fate and won by our Red Army and the Soviet people,” says Maria Denisovna. “I want people to appreciate this fragile world and remember at what cost we got it.”
In Belgorod, Maria Denisovna Koltakova is called the “iron grandmother” - at 96, she was “noted” eight times in the Russian Book of Records. She jumped with a parachute, scuba dived, climbed into the skies in a hot air balloon and hang glider - before that, none of her peers dared to do such things. And now Maria Koltakova is the most mature karting racer in the country.
"Ahead is Kursk!"
The veteran of the Great Patriotic War dedicated this record to the anniversary of the Red Army, the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk and her brother, who died in the Russo-Japanese War on the Kuril Islands. By the way, it is about him that Maria Denisovna remembers after almost every resonant act. At these moments, tears well up in her eyes, but in a second, they were gone.
Kursk is ahead of us! - the veteran exclaims, reminding him: the 75th anniversary of his liberation is coming soon. - I took part in the Battle of Kursk, the Prokhorov tank battle and reached Prague - on my stomach.
Maria Koltakova carried more than three hundred wounded from the field. She received her first award - the "Medal for Courage" - after she carried 25 soldiers with weapons from the battlefield in Voronezh. It was presented by Commander Ivan Chernyakhovsky himself. And at home they received a funeral for her: of all the girls in the division, she was the only one who survived, but the commander did not know about it. In Prague, Maria Denisovna saved 57 soldiers; now she recalls how she “dragged them to the hospital,” showing them the Order of Glory - they were awarded precisely for this act.
Actually, it was in Prague that Koltakova met Victory: the sergeant major of the medical service did not make it to Berlin due to injury. And as soon as I returned home, I tore up the funeral service.
Maria Denisovna always shares her memories of the war years with restraint, and prefers not to talk about her glory at all. She walked from Voronezh to Prague, liberated not only Kursk, Oboyan, Belgorod, but also Kyiv, but she always emphasizes: “I was not a hero, but I am proud that I was a soldier.”
"That's speed!"
Why jump with a parachute now? “I’ve been dreaming all my life,” admitted the “iron grandmother” before the first jump. Crimea, height of three thousand meters, instructor and video camera - Maria Denisovna’s first “aerial” record was filmed from the first to the last second. On her face there is the whole gamut of feelings: from excitement to delight.
Maria Koltakova promises to set more than one record. And for some reason you believe her! Photo: Anton Vergun/RG
Then Maria Koltakova was 93. She landed, and immediately - greetings to her beloved Belgorod and all Belgorod residents. Later, celebrating her 95th birthday, she will promise to break her own record and make a second jump, but from a height of five thousand meters.
Supergrandmother has mastered a hang glider and a balloon. She flew over the Prokhorovsky field: every action is symbolic.
“The Iron Grandmother” is true to herself: before each “record” she carefully watches the instructions and thoughtfully prepares for the start. And now, decisively, Maria Denisovna buttons up her karting suit, puts a voluminous helmet on her head, leaning on a cane, and goes to the go-kart. “I’m like a superhero,” he smiles. She drove the 400-meter long track five times. 46 seconds - best lap result. But this is not the main thing for a front-line soldier.
It feels like I was flying on an airplane, and not riding in a car,” she later admits with a smile. - Such speed that it seemed like I was in heaven.