Lida Matveeva. Garden in memory of Lida Matveeva's feat Lida Matveeva

Ivanovo, Ruzsky district, Moscow region - the place of the feat of schoolgirl Lida Matveeva, who warned Soviet tank crews about a German ambush. The Germans hanged Lida. She was posthumously awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War", and a monument was erected in the village.

From an eyewitness account:
« Two Soviet tanks entered the village. The policeman, seeing them, ran to the Germans to inform them about this. Residents were afraid to approach them because of the fascist threats of execution, and only the young Lida Matveeva came up and began to talk to them about something. After some time, as soon as our tankers left, the Nazis entered the village. The fact that Lida was talking to the tank crews was revealed by the old Molokan women living in the village. They grabbed her, brutally beat her and drove her on a tank by the legs to the outskirts of a linden tree, and there they hanged her, to intimidate her... The old Molokan women were shot in December by the NKVD in their own house. They hated Lida because she was a Komsomol member, and they did not extradite her sister Katya, they only warned her not to go home.»

OTHER SOURCES (LEGENDS):

LIDA MATVEEVA
From the book “Rusian Frontiers. Dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Great Victory...”, 2005
The book uses materials from the “Book of Memory” of the Moscow region, books
P.F.Duzheva “Tuchkovo. Pages of History", newspaper "Red Banner" (Ruza).

Lida Matveeva was born on April 4, 1925 in Leningrad, studied at school No. 9, lived with her mother and sister Zhenya. For the summer, she came to visit her grandparents in the village of Ivanovo near Moscow, where she vacationed with her cousin Katya, who was a year and a half younger.
In 1941, Lida graduated from ninth grade and, as always, went to Ivanovo. By that time, my grandfather had already died, and my grandmother was very sick. She died on June 8. All the relatives who were at the funeral soon left, and Lida and Katya decided to stay in the village until the end of the holidays. Two weeks later the war began.
Mom asked Lida not to come to Leningrad, since she herself intended to come to Ivanovo. But Leningrad found itself under siege (Lida’s mother and sister Zhenya died on April 5, 1942), and on October 26, 1941, the Germans entered Ivanovo.

Visiting my grandfather in the village of Ivanovo. Lida stands to the right of her grandfather.

The difficult days of the occupation began. On November 10, two Soviet reconnaissance tanks entered the village. Having gotten involved in a battle with a fascist military unit, the tankers did not notice the danger: soldiers with grenades and flammable liquid were approaching them. Lida warned our fighters. Having opened fire on the Nazis, the tanks left in the direction indicated by Lida. The tankers invited the girl to leave with them, but she returned to the village to her sister.
The Nazis grabbed sixteen-year-old Lida and, after severely beating her, hanged her. Local residents were not allowed to film the girl’s corpse for a long time. At first, Lida was buried in the hospital garden; after the war, the remains were moved to a park near the club, where a monument was erected. The linden tree on which Lida was hanged remained next to the grave as a mute witness to those events...

G.N. Yanovsky, from the book “About exploits, about valor, about glory”, Compiled by G.N. Yanovsky, “Children’s literature” Moscow, 1985
Two Soviet tanks entered the village of Ivanovo, Ruza district, Moscow region. The Nazis began to sneak up on them from behind the houses with grenades and fire bottles. Lida Matveeva saw this from the window. She ran out of the house and made it clear to the tankers about the danger that threatened them. The tankers turned around and left. The Nazis managed to capture Lida. They hanged her. In 1955, in the village of Ivanovo, a monument was unveiled to the young heroine, pioneer Lida Matveeva.
Moscow region 1941

A. Dubrovsky, “Change” No. 719, May 1957
... In that memorable spring of 1941, Leningrad schoolgirl Lida Matveeva, together with her mother, came for the summer holidays to the village of Ivanovo near Moscow, Ruzsky district. The ninth grade exams are behind us. Now you can rest. The places here are beautiful and relaxed. The village is located on the high bank of the Kotynka River. There are forests all around.
The days passed serenely. But on June 22, the radio brought terrible news: the war had begun.
Lida's mother went back to Leningrad, and Lida remained in Ivanovo. The reports from the Sovinformburo became more alarming every day. The enemy was approaching Moscow. Pali Smolensk, Mozhaisk, Volokolamsk, Ruza. In Ivanovo, not only volleys of guns could be heard, but also machine-gun bursts and machine gun chatter. The village hid and became quiet.
And then the front line moved further to the east, and Ivanovo found itself in the rear of the Nazis. Just at this time, several wounded Soviet soldiers and commanders appeared in the village, including the author of these lines. We organized an underground partisan group here.
Our group destroyed bridges over which fascist vehicles were supposed to pass and carried out other operations. Information about the enemy was often delivered to the partisans by Lida Matveeva. She was the liaison officer for the partisan group.
One day, two Soviet tanks burst into the village of Ivanovo. These were scouts. Delighted by the appearance of their own, the residents surrounded the tankers in a tight ring. There was no end to the questions.
The scouts were already preparing to set off on the return journey when an enemy military unit unexpectedly approached the village. The tankers accepted the battle. But they did not notice how several fascists, hiding behind fences and houses, began to approach the tanks. A few more minutes - and grenades would have been flying at the tanks. Our Lida prevented the disaster. Quickly running up to the tanks, she shouted: “Comrades, you are surrounded!... Leave, comrades!”
The tanks turned sharply, opened fire with machine guns on the crawling fascists and went towards the front.
The Nazis captured Lida. After beating the girl with rifle butts, they took her to the center of the village, where centuries-old linden trees grew. The occupiers decided to execute the heroine.
The headman tried to advise Lida to fall at the feet of the German masters and beg for forgiveness, but Lida answered in a firm voice: “They don’t ask the invaders for forgiveness, they are thrown out!”
Lida climbed onto the platform, made of empty boxes, with her head held high. "I did all I could! - she exclaimed. “I’m dying, loving my Motherland!... Remember me!...”
This is how Komsomol member Lida Matveeva accepted her death.
Under threat of execution, the occupiers forbade burying the brave girl. But a member of our underground group, F. Rybakov, and patriots D. Arefieva and A. Sokolov, took her from the gallows at night and carried the body of the young heroine to the house where she lived. That night, the partisans, avenging Lida's death, set fire to the enemy's ammunition depot. One of the performers of this operation was Kolya Gribanov, a friend of Lida.
In the fall of 1955, I had the opportunity to again visit the places where our partisan group operated. The car meandered along country roads for a long time. Finally here is Ivanovo. Great changes have taken place in the village. New houses have sprung up on the streets, the collective farm orchard has spread widely, and on the edge of the village there is a new large cattle yard. And only the dense forest, which during the war more than once saved the lives of partisans, still surrounds Ivanovo with a dark wall.
On the high shore of the lake, near the new club, stands a white marble obelisk. A portrait of Lida is embedded in the stone. Sweet, stern face, neatly chosen blond hair. The eyes look fervently, straight...
And immediately everything became fresh in my memory: the front, the struggle of the members of the underground partisan group, and Lida’s inspired feat, her proud behavior at the execution.
It was then that the idea came to me to create a garden at the monument, to decorate the place where the heroine died. My friends and acquaintances warmly supported me.
Soon I transported the first fruit trees and shrubs that I dug up in my garden to the village of Ivanovo. Former partisans A. Gribanova, A. Vasilyeva, F. Gromykhalina, T. Smirnova, M. Vorontsova, V. Gribanov, V. Vasiliev took an active part in laying the garden.
Collective farmers, schoolchildren, and soldiers of the Soviet Army came to our aid. The collective farm gardener, seventy-two-year-old A.I. Andronnikov, took patronage of the garden.
In total, we planted four hundred trees, shrubs, and flowers. In the very first summer they turned lushly green.
If you, dear reader, are in our area, come to the village of Ivanovo. Go to Lida’s garden, and you will always find people there who will tell you about the feat of a Komsomol member. Maybe in your heart there will be a desire to take part in the creation of gardens where the sons and daughters of the Fatherland, who died in the fight against enemies, sleep in eternal sleep.

Ilya Turichin, “EAGLETS” (collection), Compiled by B.M. Raevsky, Lenizdat, 1981
Lida was sitting on an old creaky chair by the small attic window and swaying. She loved to sway and listen to the chair creaking: “Pi-i... pi-i...” Like a bird chirping.
If my grandmother saw it, she would certainly say angrily: “Don’t climb. Don’t swing.”
But grandma is in the garden digging up the potato patch again and again. There weren't even the smallest potatoes left - about the size of a pea. And grandma keeps digging. That’s right, he wants to forget himself in his work.
“Pi-i... pi-i...” the old chair creaked, and Lida listened to the creaking and remembered...
Even before the war, she came to her grandmother here, in the Moscow region, for the holidays.
Several months have passed since that day, but it seems like it was a long time ago!
Her grandmother met her at the Leningradsky station in Moscow. And while they were moving to the bus station, Lida looked enthusiastically at the Moscow streets, bathed in the hot summer sun, noisy and cheerful.
Then we rode on a bus to Ruza.
Then on horseback to Ivanov. Lida closed her eyes, dozed off, and in her dream she saw a cheerful, bright capital.
And then the war began. Grandmother did not let Lida go to Leningrad, home, to her mother.
- Hitler should not be here. They’ll drive,” she said with conviction.
Lida even started studying at a local school.
But the Nazis still came.
Day and night, guns roared somewhere near Ruza. Airplanes howled. Car engines roared.
The Nazis were rushing to Moscow.
“They won’t let me in anyway,” my grandmother insisted. - Hitler should not be in our Moscow.
At night, Lida heard her grandmother tossing and turning, sighing, and sobbing in grief.
“Pi-i... pi-i...” the old chair creaked, and Lida thought and looked out the window.
Outside the window is an empty street, as if made of mud. And the huts seemed to be made of burnt matches, wet, dreary. This is because it is raining, and also because there is war. And even the village street and old huts yearn in captivity.
And it’s empty, empty, you can’t even see a chicken. Suddenly Lida noticed some movement in the distance, at the edge of the village. As if someone had crossed the road.
Someone is gray.
“Pi-i...” the chair creaked and fell silent. Lida rubbed the dusty glass with her palm.
It seemed?
No... Here is another gray figure, behind it is another and another... The Germans... Usually they entered or drove into the village without hiding. They caught pigs, chickens, ducks. They carried pillows, scarves - everything that came to hand.
Why are they now sneaking across the street and hiding in a ravine overgrown with alder?
That's right, they're up to something. What? Who are they hiding from?
Why are they hiding?
Lida pressed her nose to the cold glass.
Two Soviet tanks, growling angrily and rolling over hummocks, moved through the forest.
The front tank was led by Sergeant Major Ivan Moroz, an experienced, experienced tanker. His face was dark and weather-beaten. Reddish, scraggly eyebrows hung over his brown eyes. Two military orders were burning on the tunic.
The other tank was driven by Sergeant Alyosha Sentsov, a young, blue-eyed, shy guy with a dimple on his chin. Alyosha dreamed of a feat, was in love with Sergeant Major Moroz, and tried to imitate him in everything. He even spoke hoarsely, like a sergeant major.
The forest was red. Mushrooms grew right on the muddy roads. Nobody collected them. They fell to the ground in huge wet pancakes.
Alyosha drove his tank as ordered: following the trail of the one in front. And he watched intently as dark brown earth, cut into bricks, crawled out from under his caterpillars. It was as if the tank was laying out large “loaves of bread” on the road.
Alyosha was born in Moscow, and as a boy lived in a dacha not far from here, near Ruza itself. And now he was driving a car around his native Moscow region, recognizing him and not recognizing him.
The tanks went on reconnaissance missions. The very idea that there were fascists nearby, in Ruza, seemed wild and absurd. Their tanks, their guns, their sharp burr, loud helmets, short-barreled machine guns. It's ridiculous and insulting.
The tanks came out of the forest. The sergeant-major increased his speed. And Alyosha added. A village appeared ahead.
“This is, right, Ivanovo,” thought Alyosha.
They flew into the village, splashing muddy puddles to the sides. The drivers peered carefully into the viewing slots. The machine gunners were ready.
In the center of the village, at a tough intersection, Sergeant Major Moroz stopped his tank, but did not turn off the engine.
Alyosha placed his own next to the sergeant major’s tank. The hatch covers opened. The foreman leaned out.
- It seems quiet.
An old woman looked out from a nearby hut. She stared in shock at the scarlet stars on the armor and the scarlet stars on the helmets.
- What are you looking at, grandma? You will not know? - the foreman asked affectionately.
The old woman clasped her hands.
- Dear ones! Where did you start? Is this really the end of the adversary? The end of the damned? “She began to cry and blew her nose into her old, faded apron.
- It's not over yet, grandma. But it will be soon. Are there many Germans in the village?
- No... They're coming, the monsters. They'll take whatever they can get their hands on. We hide everything in the forest. Can you hide your whole life in the forest? There is hope for you, soldiers!
“Don’t doubt it,” the foreman said sternly.
Lida could see approaching tanks through the attic window. At first she thought they were fascist. Then I noticed the scarlet stars on the armor and couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Ours! Where did they come from here? After all, the front is somewhere near Moscow itself. Did they break through? Offensive? Are they really driving out the Nazis, and she’s sitting here in the attic and doesn’t know anything? And why are there only two tanks?..”
And the Germans?.. Lida froze, even caught her breath. That's why the Germans hid in the ravine. They probably found out about our tanks. So they hid. To attack suddenly. Ambush!
Tankers will get caught and die. After all, they don’t know that there is an ambush. We must warn them! Through thick and thin! Will the Germans see?.. Let... We must warn!..
Lida slid down the narrow stairs and hurt her knee. In the hallway, she hurriedly put her feet into rubber boots, quickly put on her coat and, already throwing a colorful scarf over her head, ran out into the street.
Dirt began to swirl underfoot, muddy splashes scattered to the sides. Quicker! Quicker!..
Lida ran, out of breath, towards the tanks.
- Comrades... tankers! Go away! You are surrounded! There are fascists there! - Lida pointed behind the huts, where there was a steep ravine, and repeated hastily: - Leave quickly!
- Thank you Sis! - The foreman knitted his scraggly eyebrows. - Now we are quilting them!
He slammed the hatch. The engine roared. The tank ran down the street, then turned around, plowing the ground with its tracks, and rushed down into the ravine. Alyosha quickly and accurately repeated the foreman’s maneuver.
The Nazis did not expect the attack. They crawled towards the tanks. Suddenly seeing heavy clanging caterpillars in front of them, they jumped up and ran in all directions. But it was already too late. Machine guns fired from the tanks...
When the tanks, having combed the alder forest, emerged from the ravine onto the village street, Alyosha, out of the corner of his eye, noticed that same girl at the intersection. She stood right on the road, bare-haired and waving at him with a colorful headscarf. Desperate girl!
But Alyosha was not the only one who saw the girl. The Nazis also noticed her. The chief lieutenant ordered to catch her.
When Lida was brought in, the chief lieutenant took a thin cigarette from a metal cigarette case, cracked the lighter, and lit it.
Lida noticed how his hands were shaking.
- So it was you who warned the Russian tanks about our movements?
The girl was silent.
The chief lieutenant greedily took several drags. He was glad to be alive. It was such a nightmare when the tanks turned and rushed straight at them! And all because of this girl!
- What's your name?
These Russians are strange people. So small and silent.
- I ask: what is your name?
The girl turned away and looked somewhere in the corner.
“I’ll hang you,” the chief lieutenant smiled and blew a stream of acrid smoke straight into Lida’s face.
The girl winced.
The chief lieutenant looked out the window. There was a cart on the street, and several soldiers were putting the dead on it.
- I know for sure that you warned the Russians. And I will hang you! Aren't you scared to eat?
The girl sniffled and suddenly laughed quietly.
This laughter made the chief lieutenant feel uneasy.
- Hang! - he shouted in German to the soldiers who brought the girl and stood near the door. - And quickly!
The soldiers grabbed Lida by the hands, pushed her out of the hut onto the street and walked along the road: the girl in the middle, the soldiers on the sides. One of them had a rope.
Lida walked along the road cut with bricks. Soon the whole earth will be covered with such bricks. They will come, our tanks! They will go west and will go until they drive out all the fascists from their native land!
Roadside birch trees threw leaves at her feet. The foliage was yellow-yellow, and thin veins were visible on each leaf. She tried not to step on the leaves so as not to crush them or stain them.
Zhenya, her classmate, stood near his hut. They sat on the same desk. Zhenya’s face is alarmed.
-Where are you going?
“Hang,” Lida said and waved her hand at him. Zhenya didn’t believe it.
The soldiers brought the girl to the linden tree and raised their heads, choosing the most comfortable branches. And she raised her head and seemed to see this linden tree for the first time. The linden tree was old, thick, spreading, and the foliage on it was almost completely green. Lipa continued to live.
The soldier threw the rope over the branch. Another began to tie a knot at its end, making a loop.
Lida followed the movements of rough, soil-stained fingers. She tried not to think about the fact that they were knitting a loop for her. It became scary. It became very scary, because the alien soldiers’ faces were calm. And the fingers moved calmly. It was as if they were knitting not a noose for a person, but an ordinary knot.
Lida looked away from them. She looked at the village street, at the dark ground covered with specks of fallen leaves. In Leningrad, in Lenin Park on the Petrograd side, there are so many leaves at this time that you can’t even see the ground. They rustle, rustle, as if they are whispering to you about something...
The soldier who was tying the noose silently pushed the girl towards the tree. He threw a noose around her neck, as if trying it on. Then he tightened it. Lida coughed and pulled the noose open with her hands.
The soldier laughed.
The rope broke twice while the soldiers were pulling it.
Lida understood that she would die. But he had to die with dignity. So that the Nazis would never know that she was scared. She looked at the soldiers with contempt and said through clenched teeth:
- Now I'll show you how to do it.
She stood on a huge boulder that lay under a linden tree, and when the rope tightened, she jumped from it...
Winter came.
The Nazis were finished off near Moscow.
Snow covered the ashes, covered broken fascist guns, mortars, and dead soldiers near them...
On the roads the snow was cut into bricks. Red Star tanks passed through here. And among them was Alyosha Sentsov’s tank. He burst into the village of Ivanovo and stopped at the same crossroads as then, in the fall. Alyosha opened the hatch and jumped out of the car.
The same old woman came out of the hut, only she seemed much older.
- Hello, grandma! Here we are! For good!
The old woman nodded and shook her head. Large tears flowed down her cheeks.
- Grandma, the girl here was wearing a colorful scarf. She saved us in the fall. Remember? When the Germans surrounded us. I wish I could see her!..
The old woman kept shaking and shaking her head.
- They hanged her overnight. They hanged you on that linden tree, you Herods.
- A girl? - Alyosha’s voice trembled.
“They hanged me, my dear...” The old woman suddenly sat down in the snow and began to wail, swaying from side to side.
Alyosha picked her up and asked carefully:
- Your relatives?
- We are all, son, relatives, but when the trouble is like this... Beat them, burn them to the ground, to the ground!..
- Goodbye, grandma. -Alyosha climbed into the tank, and the tank, as if understanding its owner, rushed forward. But Alyosha restrained him. He turned sharply, raising snow dust. He looked out of the hatch.
- What was her name, grandmother?
- Lida. Matveeva Lida. She is from Leningrad. Lida Matveeva.
The tank left, and the old woman looked after him for a long time, and large tears flowed down her cheeks.
Alyosha and Sergeant Major Alexey Sentsov have had a hard journey.
Drowning.
It was burning.
I was hospitalized twice.
And again - crossings, battles, villages, cities.
And every time things were difficult, Alyosha remembered a girl from the village of Ivanovo, the Leningrad pioneer Lida Matveeva. As if alive, she stood up in memory: in rubber boots, stained with mud, in a colorful scarf, from under the scarf a strand of light, light, like straw, was sticking out.
Lida Matveeva was always there. She helped me crawl out of a burning tank, swim ashore, survive, and win.
And in memory of her, in the liberated cities, on the charred walls of houses, foreman Alyosha Sentsov wrote two letters with chalk: “L. M.” - Lida Matveeva.

G. Korenevskaya, Moscow, no. RGASPI F-3 op. 3 D. 32. L. 38-40.
There is a village in the Moscow region called Ivanovo. Not far from the club, surrounded by a fence, there is a monument to Lydia Matveeva.
Passers-by stop here for a long time, listening to eyewitnesses' stories about the glorious feat accomplished during the Great Patriotic War by a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl.
...Every summer, when school ended, Lida came from Leningrad to visit her relatives in the village of Ivanovo. So it was in that forty-first year. But the carefree holiday was disrupted by the war.
Relatives did not allow Lida to return at a troubled time. In the fall, the village was occupied by the Nazis. The occupiers committed atrocities, robbed residents of food and robbed them. Hatred towards the invaders grew in everyone's soul.
Winter has come. Under the blows of units of the Soviet Army, the enemy rolled back from Moscow. The artillery cannonade came closer and closer. The village was expecting imminent liberation.
One day, two Soviet T-34 tanks appeared on the outskirts, breaking through the front line behind enemy lines. The joy of the collective farmers knew no bounds. But at this time a large group of Nazis was approaching the tanks in a roundabout way. Now they are already close. A little more, and bunches of grenades will fly under the tracks.
And then, from somewhere behind the barn, a girl jumped out and rushed towards the tankers.
- Comrades! - she shouted. - You are surrounded! Over there,” she pointed to the barn, “the Nazis are crawling.”
The tank hatches slammed shut, the vehicles turned sharply and, opening fire on the enemy, sped off towards the forest.
Lida did not have time to hide. The Germans grabbed her and, shouting “Rus, partisans!”, beating her with rifle butts, led the girl along an empty street. In the center of the village, near old linden trees, we stopped.
Fritz whispered something to the headman. He turned to Lida and said:
- Get on your knees and beg for the officer’s life.
Matveeva raised her head proudly, her eyes burning with anger.
- They don’t ask for forgiveness from the invaders! - she said firmly.
The officer swore and ordered the girl to be executed.
Lida herself stepped onto the platform. Throwing her head back a little, Lida looked for the last time at the blue sky, at the darkening forest in the distance, at the houses covered with snow... Her body ached from the beatings.
Gathering her last strength, she shouted loudly so that the residents standing at a distance could hear: “I did everything I could. Farewell, Motherland!” The scream stopped. The body hung in the air and suddenly... fell: the rope could not stand it. Only on the third pass did the executioners manage to accomplish their dirty deed. At night, despite the threats of the Nazis, Lida’s body was removed by residents and buried.

Local policemen - Hitler's minions - repeatedly harassed her, but she always gave them a fitting rebuff.
It so happened that in December of the same 1941, a single Soviet tank broke through to Ivanovo, the crew of which could not find the way to their own. Lida, knowing that a German anti-tank battery was located at the other end of the village and the road was mined, suggested the tank crews the right path. Local police and Germans found out about this. It is not known whether any trial took place over Lida, but she, just a child by age, was sentenced to hang. Perhaps this was facilitated by the fact that during the interrogation Lida did not behave like a child, boldly and even impudently. Most likely, she herself did not admit the idea that she could be hanged in the same way as an adult female partisan.

The sentence was carried out the next day. In the morning, two German soldiers took the condemned girl to the gallows built for her execution. On the way, they met one of Lida’s acquaintances, who still knew nothing about the events that had taken place. He asked where they were taking her. She calmly answered him: “Hang.”

A little thirteen-year-old girl suffered a truly martyr's death after they put a noose around her neck and knocked out the stand from under her feet, the rope broke. The same thing happened the second time... If this had happened even in the Middle Ages, Lida would most likely have been pardoned. But a brutal war was going on, and the opponents did not have pity not only for women, but even for girls and girls... No one even thought of pitying the child. It’s just that the village headman, Hitler’s servant, brought another, strong silk parachute rope, and the terrible procedure of capital punishment by hanging began for the third time...

One can only imagine what Lida Matveeva experienced in these nightmarish moments for her. It’s hard to believe, but, according to sources, she had the strength and courage to tell her executioners: “You don’t know how to hang. Let me show you how to hang.” She climbed onto the makeshift scaffold for the third time and waited a few seconds, giving the German soldiers the opportunity to pull up and secure the rope. And as soon as the thin elastic loop tightly wrapped around her girlish neck, Lida herself confidently stepped off the stand...

But this time the miracle did not happen: the rope did not break, and the legs of the executed girl hung helplessly in the air... It was this terrible moment that the Germans and policemen who surrounded the gallows in a tight ring were waiting for, looking at the execution with carnivorously greedy glances. At the same time, many laughed sadistically, literally savoring the death throes of the hanged pioneer. It was obvious that it gave them unspeakable pleasure to see how the unfortunate woman was writhing in terrible agony of suffocation... Well, this was the hour of their triumph: after all, they still put this so impudent and at the same time so pretty girl to a painful and shameful execution , they still hung her...

Lida sat at the attic window and recalled how, even before the war, she came to her grandmother here, in the Moscow region, for the holidays.

Several months have passed since that day, but it seems like a long time ago! And then the war began. Grandmother did not let Lida go to Leningrad to visit her mother.

Soon the Nazis came to Ivanovo. Day and night, guns roared somewhere. Airplanes howled. Car engines roared. The Nazis were rushing to Moscow.

“They won’t let me in anyway,” my grandmother insisted. - Hitler should not be in our Moscow.

Lida thought and looked out the window. Suddenly she noticed some movement at the edge of the village. As if someone had crossed the road. Someone is gray.

It seemed?

No... Here's another gray figure, behind it... The Germans... Usually they entered the village without hiding. They caught pigs, chickens, ducks. They carried pillows, scarves - everything that came to hand.

Why are they now sneaking across the street and hiding in a ravine?

That's right, they're up to something. What? Who are they hiding from?

Lida pressed her nose to the glass.

Two Soviet tanks, rolling over hummocks, moved through the forest.

The front tank was led by Sergeant Major Ivan Moroz, an experienced tanker. Two military orders were burning on the tunic. The other is young sergeant Alyosha Sentsov.

The tanks went on reconnaissance missions. A village appeared ahead. The manhole covers opened. The foreman leaned out.

It seems quiet.

An old woman looked out from a nearby hut.

Are there many Germans in the village? - asked the foreman

No... They're coming, the monsters. There is hope for you, soldiers!

Lida could see approaching tanks through the attic window. At first she thought they were fascist. Then I noticed the scarlet stars on the armor and couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Ours! Where did they come from here? After all, the front is somewhere near Moscow itself. Did they break through? Offensive? Are they really driving out the Nazis, and she’s sitting here in the attic and doesn’t know anything?”

And the Germans?.. Lida froze. That's why the Germans hid in the ravine. They probably found out about our tanks. So they hid. To attack suddenly.

The tankers will die. After all, they don’t know that there is an ambush. We must warn them! Will the Germans see?.. Let... We must warn!..

Lida ran to the tanks.

Comrades... tankers! Go away! You are surrounded! There are fascists there!

Thank you Sis! - The foreman knitted his scraggly eyebrows. - Now we are quilting them!

He slammed the hatch. The engine roared. The tanks rushed down into the ravine.

The Nazis did not expect the attack. Seeing the heavy clanging caterpillars in front of them, they jumped up and ran in all directions. But it was already too late. Machine guns fired from the tanks...

When the tanks got out of the ravine, Alyosha noticed that same girl at the intersection. She waved her headscarf at him. Desperate girl!

But Alyosha was not the only one who saw the girl. The Nazis also noticed her. The chief lieutenant ordered to catch her.

When Lida was brought in, he took out a cigarette and lit it.

Lida noticed how his hands were shaking.

So it was you who warned the Russian tanks about our movements?

The girl was silent.

The chief lieutenant greedily took several drags. It was such a nightmare when the tanks turned and rushed straight at them! And all because of this girl!

What's your name?

These Russians are strange people. So small and silent.

I ask: what is your name?

The girl turned away.

“I will kill you,” the chief lieutenant smiled and blew a stream of acrid smoke straight into Lida’s face.

The girl winced.

The chief lieutenant looked out the window. There was a cart on the street, and several soldiers were putting the dead on it.

I know correctly, you warned the Russians. And I will hang you! Aren't you scared to eat?

The girl sniffled and suddenly laughed quietly.

This laughter made the fascist feel uneasy.

Hang! - he shouted in German to the soldiers. - And quickly!

The soldiers grabbed Lida by the hands, pushed her out of the hut onto the street and walked along the road.

Lida walked along the road cut by tanks. Soon the whole earth will be covered with such bricks. They will come, our tanks! They will go on until they drive out all the fascists from their native land!

Near the hut stood Zhenya, her classmate. Zhenya’s face was alarmed.

Where are you going?

“Hang,” Lida said and waved her hand at him. Zhenya didn’t believe it.

The soldiers brought the girl to the linden tree and raised their heads, choosing the most comfortable branches.

It became very scary, because the alien soldiers’ faces were calm. It was as if they were knitting not a noose for a person, but an ordinary knot.

Lida looked away from them. She looked at the village street, at the ground covered with specks of fallen leaves. The soldier who was tying the noose silently pushed the girl towards the tree. He threw a noose around her neck, as if trying it on. Then he tightened it. Lida coughed and pulled the noose open with her hands.

The soldier laughed.

The rope broke twice while the soldiers were pulling it.

Lida understood that she would die. But he had to die with dignity. So that the Nazis would never know that she was scared. She looked at the soldiers with contempt and said through clenched teeth:

Now I'll show you how to do it.

She stood on a huge boulder that lay under a linden tree, and when the rope tightened, she jumped from it... This is how Lida Matveeva died.

Winter came. The Nazis were finished off near Moscow.

On the roads the snow was cut into bricks. Red Star tanks passed through here. And among them was Alyosha Sentsov’s tank. He burst into the village

The same old woman came out of the hut.

Hello, grandma! Here we are! For good! The girl here was wearing a colorful scarf. She saved us in the fall. When the Germans surrounded us. I wish I could see her!..

The old woman shook her head.

They hanged her overnight. They hanged you on that linden tree, you Herods.

Hung, my dear...

What was her name, grandma?

Lida. Matveeva Lida. She is from Leningrad.

The tank left, and the old woman looked after him for a long time, large tears flowing down her cheeks.

Not an easy path for Sergeant Major Alexey Sentsov. Drowning. It was burning.

I was hospitalized twice. And again - crossings, battles, villages, cities.

And every time things were difficult, Alyosha remembered a girl from the village of Ivanovo, the Leningrad pioneer Lida Matveeva. Lida Matveeva was always there. She helped me crawl out of a burning tank, swim ashore, survive, and win.

And in memory of her, in the liberated cities, on the charred walls of houses, foreman Alyosha Sentsov wrote two letters with chalk: “L. M.” - Lida Matveeva.

The village of Ivanovo, Ruzsky district, is associated with the name of the fearless Leningrad schoolgirl Lida Matveeva, who at the cost of her life saved the lives of the crew of Soviet tank crews. More than one generation of Ruzhan residents was brought up on this feat. For residents of the village of Belyanaya Gora and surrounding villages, Lida Matveeva has long become HER heroine. The pioneer squad of the Belyanogorsk school also bore the name of Lida Matveeva. Until now, most of the exhibition at the school museum is dedicated to the young Leningrader. Students write essays about her and dedicate their poems to her.

In the spring of 1941, Leningrad schoolgirl Lida Matveeva and her mother came to visit her grandmother in the village of Ivanovo for the summer holidays. This is where the war found them. The mother had to return to Leningrad, and Lida, along with her cousin Katya, remained in the village. Every day the Sovinformburo reports became more and more alarming. The enemy was approaching Moscow. Pali Smolensk, Mozhaisk, Volokolamsk, Ruza.

In Ivanovo, gun salvos, machine gun and machine gun fire were already heard. The village was occupied by the Germans. One day, in early November, two Soviet tanks approached here. These were the scouts of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade, Ivan Moroz and Alexey Sentsov, carrying out a raid on the German rear. On one of the streets a girl ran out towards the tanks, warning of the danger.

According to some sources, the girl was seen by the Nazis themselves, according to others, one of the local residents handed her over to them. Enraged enemies hanged the young heroine from a spreading linden tree near the village council; for three days the Nazis did not allow the body to be removed. Retreating, they threw the body of a young girl into a burning house. Fifteen-year-old Lida was buried in the hospital garden among the birches. After the war, the burial was moved to the park near the club, where a white marble obelisk was installed. And that same linden tree still stands, a mute witness to those dramatic events...

Unfortunately, at the state level, Lida was awarded posthumously only with the medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" of the first degree (1944). For many years, teachers of the Belyanogorsk school, local historians, and war veterans tried to ensure that the feat of the young heroine was appreciated. In the late 80s of the last century, her sister E.M. Matveeva approached the government with a request to posthumously honor Lida with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The official response stated: " In accordance with the law, the proposal for an award is considered by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the basis of proposals from ministries, party and Soviet bodies. In this regard, your letter has been sent to the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR. You will be notified of the results. July 29, 1988." Soon the Soviet Union disappeared, and the appeal remained unanswered.

And only almost twenty years later, in December 2006, the committee for non-state awards of the Russian Federation in connection with the 65th anniversary of her life in Moscow awarded the young heroine the Order of Marshal Zhukov. Lida's only relative, cousin E.M. Matveeva, turned to the Belyanogorsk school to accept the award and leave it for eternal storage.

The award was handed over to the school museum on April 4, 2007, on the eve of Lida’s birthday. The order was presented to one of the leaders of the public organization "Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement of the Russian Federation" N.P. Platonov. She said that she learned about the fate of Lida Matveeva in 1953, when she accidentally ended up in the village of Ivanovo. Since then, for many years, Nelly Petrovna has sought to perpetuate the memory of the Leningrad schoolgirl.

Now some media are asking the question: is it necessary to give high honors to the heroes who died in the war? And sometimes we hear direct statements about changing the view of the past, of history. New times offer to elect new heroes. But there are sacred concepts - such as “Motherland”, “feat”, “life”, “death”, “love”, “self-sacrifice”, “father”, “mother” - which are not subject to moral revision or devaluation. Students of the Belyanogorsk school and members of the local history circle under the leadership of Tatyana Mikhailovna Zaikina will never look for new dubious heroes.

T.M. Zaikina in the school museum. Photo by S. Savinykh, newspaper "Red Banner".

She and her children, without loud words or pathos, in a school museum with a leaking roof that has long been in need of repair, for a symbolic salary have been trying for many years to save and preserve valuable documents and exhibits - this thin connecting thread with the past. Members of the local history circle conduct research work and annually and successfully present the results of their research at conferences. The words of these guys: “If it weren’t for the heroes of the forties, we don’t know where and who we would be now” - speak of moral maturity, and the formed civic position deserves sincere respect.

From the memoirs of a participant in those events, partisan A. Dubrovsky, “Smena” No. 719, May 1957.

In that memorable spring of 1941, Leningrad schoolgirl Lida Matveeva, together with her mother, came for the summer holidays to the village of Ivanovo near Moscow, Ruzsky district. The ninth grade exams are behind us. Now you can rest. The places here are beautiful and relaxed. The village is located on the high bank of the Kotynka River. There are forests all around.
The days passed serenely. But on June 22, the radio brought terrible news: the war had begun.
Lida's mother went back to Leningrad, and Lida remained in Ivanovo. The reports from the Sovinformburo became more alarming every day. The enemy was approaching Moscow. Pali Smolensk, Mozhaisk, Volokolamsk, Ruza. In Ivanovo, not only volleys of guns could be heard, but also machine-gun bursts and machine gun chatter. The village hid and became quiet.
And then the front line moved further to the east, and Ivanovo found itself in the rear of the Nazis. Just at this time, several wounded Soviet soldiers and commanders appeared in the village, including the author of these lines. We organized an underground partisan group here.
Our group destroyed bridges over which fascist vehicles were supposed to pass and carried out other operations. Information about the enemy was often delivered to the partisans by Lida Matveeva. She was the liaison officer for the partisan group.
One day, two Soviet tanks burst into the village of Ivanovo. These were scouts. Delighted by the appearance of their own, the residents surrounded the tankers in a tight ring. There was no end to the questions.
The scouts were already preparing to set off on the return journey when an enemy military unit unexpectedly approached the village. The tankers accepted the battle. But they did not notice how several fascists, hiding behind fences and houses, began to approach the tanks. A few more minutes - and grenades would have been flying at the tanks. Our Lida prevented the disaster. Quickly running up to the tanks, she shouted: “Comrades, you are surrounded!... Leave, comrades!”
The tanks turned sharply, opened fire with machine guns on the crawling fascists and went towards the front.
The Nazis captured Lida. After beating the girl with rifle butts, they took her to the center of the village, where centuries-old linden trees grew. The occupiers decided to execute the heroine.
The headman tried to advise Lida to fall at the feet of the German masters and beg for forgiveness, but Lida answered in a firm voice: “They don’t ask the invaders for forgiveness, they are thrown out!”
Lida climbed onto the platform, made of empty boxes, with her head held high. "I did all I could! - she exclaimed. “I’m dying, loving my Motherland!... Remember me!...”
This is how Komsomol member Lida Matveeva accepted her death.
Under threat of execution, the occupiers forbade burying the brave girl. But a member of our underground group, F. Rybakov, and patriots D. Arefieva and A. Sokolov, took her from the gallows at night and carried the body of the young heroine to the house where she lived. That night, the partisans, avenging Lida's death, set fire to the enemy's ammunition depot. One of the performers of this operation was Kolya Gribanov, a friend of Lida.
In the fall of 1955, I had the opportunity to again visit the places where our partisan group operated. The car meandered along country roads for a long time. Finally here is Ivanovo. Great changes have taken place in the village. New houses have sprung up on the streets, the collective farm orchard has spread widely, and on the edge of the village there is a new large cattle yard. And only the dense forest, which during the war more than once saved the lives of partisans, still surrounds Ivanovo with a dark wall.
On the high shore of the lake, near the new club, stands a white marble obelisk. A portrait of Lida is embedded in the stone. Sweet, stern face, neatly chosen blond hair. The eyes look fervently, straight...
And immediately everything became fresh in my memory: the front, the struggle of the members of the underground partisan group, and Lida’s inspired feat, her proud behavior at the execution.
It was then that the idea came to me to create a garden at the monument, to decorate the place where the heroine died. My friends and acquaintances warmly supported me.
Soon I transported the first fruit trees and shrubs that I dug up in my garden to the village of Ivanovo. Former partisans A. Gribanova, A. Vasilyeva, F. Gromykhalina, T. Smirnova, M. Vorontsova, V. Gribanov, V. Vasiliev took an active part in laying the garden.
Collective farmers, schoolchildren, and soldiers of the Soviet Army came to our aid. The collective farm gardener, seventy-two-year-old A.I. Andronnikov, took patronage of the garden.
In total, we planted four hundred trees, shrubs, and flowers. In the very first summer they turned lushly green.
If you, dear reader, are in our area, come to the village of Ivanovo. Go to Lida’s garden, and you will always find people there who will tell you about the feat of a Komsomol member. Maybe in your heart there will be a desire to take part in the creation of gardens where the sons and daughters of the Fatherland, who died in the fight against enemies, sleep in eternal sleep.