The Woman Who Led a Platoon of Men: Yevdokiya Zavaliy

At just nineteen, Yevdokiya Zavaliy joined the Red Army as a nurse. Within a year, she was leading men into combat, the only female infantry commander in the Soviet forces.

This episode tells her incredible transformation and the battles she fought across Ukraine, from Sevastopol to Berlin.
#WWII #YevdokiyaZavaliy #WomenAtWar #EasternFront

📚 Sources
• Cottam, Women in War and Resistance: Selected Biographies of Soviet Women Soldiers (1998)
• Krylova, Soviet Women in Combat: A History of Violence on the Eastern Front (2010)
• Pennington, Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat (2001)
• Merridale, Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939–1945 (2006)
• Zavaliy, personal interviews and memoir excerpts compiled in Komsomolskaya Pravda (1970s–1980s press archives)

All footage is courtesy of public domain archives or part of the Wikimedia Commons.

"The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

Видео The Woman Who Led a Platoon of Men: Yevdokiya Zavaliy канала Bitesize History