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Topics: World War 2
Callum Jones
Topics: World War 2
There are of course many dreadful and heartbreaking stories to come out of World War II.
However, more personal stories do provide a unique insight into what so many went through during the deadly war.
Zinaida Portnova's story is one of particular significance, with some nowadays labelling her as a 'one woman army'.
Born in Leningrad, Russia, in February 1926 - Portnova had quite the life, even though it was cut pretty short.
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She was a seventh-grade student at the 385th school in the Russian city in 1941, when she left for her grandmother's house in the Vitebsk region.
Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union shortly after that, and an incident with Nazi troops led to Portnova despising them.
German soldiers hit her grandmother while they were confiscating the cattle, leading to the girl (quite understandably) having strong negative feelings towards them.
Portnova joined the Belarusian resistance movement in 1942, and began by distributing Soviet propaganda leaflets in German-occupied Belarus.
She also collected and hid weapons for Soviet soldiers and reported on German troop movements.
The war efforts did not stop there though, as Portnova began learning how to use a gun.
She participated in rather risky sabotage actions at a pump, local power plant, and brick factory. These actions ended up killing up to an estimated 100 German soldiers during World War II.
Portnova's acts of revenge would also involve poisoning German soldiers' food after she became employed as a kitchen aide in Obo.
She poisoned the food meant for the Nazi garrison stationed there, but sadly this made her become an immediate suspect.
To prove she was innocent, Portnova ate some of the poisoned food in front of the Nazis.
After she did not fall ill immediately, they released her.
But the teen did eventually fall ill though, vomiting heavily as a result of consuming the food.
After she did not return to work, the Germans realized she had been the culprit and they eventually found her. She was quickly captured but that was certainly not the end of the story.
While she was being interrogated, Portnova disarmed the Nazi detective and shot him in the head.
And in her attempt to escape, the teen girl executed two more Nazis.
Portnova attempted to escape the compound and ran into the woods, but she was caught near the banks of a river.
She was executed in 1944.
Portnova's story has been creating a lot of discussion on X recently, with one person penning: "She was indeed a one woman army," while a second added: "That's an incredible woman."