In World War II, what did the 18-year-old Soviet partisan, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, do, and what was the result?

There is a third photo wich shows her body after she was hanged but unfortunately I had no place to show it. She is Zoja Kozmogyenjanszkaja was Soviet insurgent (in Russian: partisan).

She wasn’t a “partisan” per se, although that was her official designation. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was a volunteer Red Army saboteur who was sent by the command as a part of a small team to burn several populated villages in the Moscow region. Those villages were used by the German forces as a temporary shelter. That happened in late November of 1941, during the Battle for Moscow.

Although some of their comrades were killed or taken prisoner, Zoya and two men were able to burn three houses in Petrischevo village and kill several German horses. After that, saboteurs dispersed, and sometime later Zoya returned to Petrischevo alone to continue with the task.

When she tried to burn another house, Zoya was found out by one of the villagers and caught by the Germans. She was beaten up, tortured and publicly hanged on November 29, 1941. There were different reports about the course of the execution, but everybody agreed that Zoya was absolutely defiant until her last breath. She hasn’t even given up her real name, and Germans have thought that her name was Tanya.

After Petrischevo was freed, the Pravda newspaper uncovered Zoya’s story and published several articles in early 1942. Zoya was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union and quickly became one of the most famous Soviet war heroines, if not the most famous.

While her actual accomplishment was meager and controversial (she tried to burn the houses with Germans and Russians alike), her defiance and fearlessness were certainly impressive and inspiring. Basically, Zoya became the Soviet Jeanne d'Arc.

Pictured - Zoya before the execution. The nameplate says “The arsonist” in Russian and in German.

On November 29, 1941 - Soviet partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya hanged at the age of 18 by German fascist soldiers during World War II. Kosmodemyanskaya was a partisan fighter, a member of a Red Army Western Front sabotage and reconnaissance force resisting the German fascist invasion of the Soviet Union which had begun a few months earlier. 

She was part of a group tasked with burning down houses where German soldiers were staying. She was captured and brutally tortured. She refused to give any information, so the German soldiers paraded her in front of the village with a sign saying 'arsonist' around her neck and hung her. Her last words, with the noose around her neck, were, ‘Comrades! Why are you so gloomy? I am not afraid to die! I am happy to die for my people!’ Then, as a final act of defiance, she said, ‘You’ll hang me now, but I am not alone. There are two hundred million of us. You can’t hang us all.’ 

The Germans took photographs of Zoya’s hanged and tortured body, When the photos were later taken off captured German soldiers and published with an article in Pravda, it caused a national sensation within the Soviet Union. Kosmodemyanskaya was the first woman awarded with the title of 'Hero of the Soviet Union' during World War II. She became the symbol of the Soviet people’s heroism in defending the Soviet Union and defeating the Nazis. Her image is depicted in monuments, essays, movies, stories and art.

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