Tamara Smirnova

For her exceptional bravery and heroism, the nineteen-year-old first-year student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Leningrad Institute of Civil Engineering (now SPbGASU), medical instructor of the Baltic Fleet Marine Brigade Tamara Smirnova was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Seriously wounded and bleeding, she crawled across the front line for 28 hours and was able to convey valuable information to the command. In 1942, the fighting Baltic delegated her to the All-Union Anti-Fascist Rally of Soviet Women.

Tamara Smirnova went to the front as a volunteer marine. She faced her baptism of fire in a landing operation: she rushed to attack across a river with the Red Navy sailors on a dark autumn night. Despite the cold, icy water, wet clothes and shoes, the group reached the opposite bank. Only then did the enemy notice them and open heavy fire. With the support of artillery and machine guns, the Red Navy sailors found themselves behind enemy lines, breaking through a line of pillboxes. Tamara was there until the last minute of the battle.

Tamara proved her fearlessness and impeccable performance of combat missions again and again. One frosty day, Tamara was assigned to track the location of fire weapons on the enemy's front line. The girl made her way through the forest, crawled across all the open spaces and lay unnoticed all day a few steps from the enemy, and at night she went to the rear of the Germans with the Red Navy sailors. Our artillery struck the fire points she had marked, and our troops soon captured the enemy's fortified lines.

She was on the front lines and with intelligence officers made her way under the German barbed wire, passed through minefields, and went behind enemy lines. Once, a group of sailors was conducting a night reconnaissance in force. The sailors-snoopers needed to take a fascist bunker. The enemy was illuminating everything around with rockets, so the main thing was to seize the moment to attack. However, one fighter did not have enough patience, and he rushed forward... While bandaging the wounded, Tamara received serious wounds to the head, chest, thigh, and lay unconscious for several hours literally twenty meters from the fascists' location. Having come to, overcoming the pain, she made her way to her own for another 28 hours.

After the war, Tamara Smirnova completed her studies at the university and worked in her specialty in Belgorod. Her son also studied at our university.

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