Lyudmila Kravets

Lyudmila Stepanovna Kravets (Russian: Людмила Степановна Кравец, Ukrainian: Людмила Степанівна Кравець; 7 February 1923 – 23 May 2015) was a Senior Sergeant in the 63rd Guards Rifle Regiment in the 23rd Guards Rifle Division of the 3rd Shock Army on the 1st Belorussian Front during World War II. For her actions in the war, she was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 31 May 1945, and was the only woman in her regiment to be awarded the title.[1]

Lyudmila Stepanovna Kravets
Native name	Людмила Степанівна Кравець
Born	7 February 1923 Kushuhum, Ukrainian SSR
Died	23 May 2015 (aged 92) Kiev, Ukraine
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service/branch	Main Military Medical Directorate
Years of service	1941–1946
Rank	Senior Sergeant
Unit	63rd Guards Rifle Regiment
Battles/wars	Eastern Front of World War II Battle of Berlin Battle of Warsaw Battle of Kiev
Awards	Hero of the Soviet Union

Civilian life

Kravets was born on 7 February 1923 in the village of Kushuhum, Ukraine to a working family. After graduating from secondary school she completed a two-year nursing course in Zaporozhye, graduating in 1941.[2]

Military career

Kravets joined the Red Army in July 1941 after the start of the Second World War, initially working in military hospitals. In 1942 her regiment fought on the Northwestern Front, in which she sustained a serious injury but returned to fighting after recovering.[3][4]

She was awarded the Medal "For Courage" after a night combat mission in 1943 in which she read out an order to surrender in German while in close proximity to enemy territory; 29 German soldiers surrendered the next morning.[5]

During the Battle of Berlin on 17 April 1945 while on the outskirts of the city she took over the duties of the company commander and participated in direct combat in the battle, and later in the battle she evacuated injured soldiers from the area under enemy fire. For her actions in battle, she was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union 31 May 1945 with an Order of Lenin and was demobilized from the military in 1946.[2]

She lived the cities of Zaporizhia and Kiev after the war, where she was involved with patriotic campaigns. She passed away in Kiev on 23 May 2015 at the age of 92.[2]

Awards

Soviet

• Hero of the Soviet Union (31 May 1945)
• Order of Lenin (31 May 1945)
• Order of the Patriotic War 1st class (11 March 1985)
• Three Orders of the Red Star (1 October 1943, 15 September 1944, and 7 February 1945)
• Medal "For Courage" (8 February 1943)
• campaign and jubilee medals

Foreign

• Patriotic Order of Merit (6 May 1985)
• Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky 3rd class (14 October 1999)

[6]

See also

• List of female Heroes of the Soviet Union
• Vera Kashcheyeva
• Kseniya Konstantinova

References

1. Sakaida, Henry (2012-04-20). Heroines of the Soviet Union 1941–45. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781780966922.
2. "Кравец Людмила Степановна". www.warheroes.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-02-02.
3. "Кравец Людмила Степановна, Герой Советского Союза (Орден Ленина и медаль "Золотая звезда")". pamyat-naroda.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-02-02.
4. Heroines. Issue. I. (Essays on Women - Heroes of the Soviet Union). M., Politizdat, 1969.
5. Санинструктор полка Людмила Кравец, которой нет на запорожской Аллее Славы. Из цикла «Герои земли Запорожской». ХРОНИКИ и КОММЕНТАРИИ.
6. Simonov & Chudinova 2017, p. 94.

Bibliography

• Cottam, Kazimiera (1998). Women in War and Resistance: Selected Biographies of Soviet Women Soldiers. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co. ISBN 1-58510-160-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Simonov, Andrey; Chudinova, Svetlana (2017). Женщины - Герои Советского Союза и России [Women – Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia]. Moscow: Russian Knights Foundation and Museum of Technology Vadim Zadorozhny. ISBN 9785990960701. OCLC 1019634607.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)