Aliya Moldagulova

For not long, Aliya studied at 11th school in the town of Aulie-Ata. She has been sent to be raised by her grandmother, in the family of her maternal uncle Aubakir Moldagulov. From the age of eight, Aliya has been living in Alma-Ata. Already in childhood, she was distinguished by a purposeful and firm character.

The commander, Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Efimov, wrote a letter to the sniper school, from which Aliya graduated with honors. This document is kept in the heroine's museum in Aktobe. The text of the letter was published in the newspaper "Lenin Youth" on May 9, 1969, No. 91.

In the battle of Pskov Alia contributed to the successful offensive charge of the battalion. A. Moldagulova at the age of 18, died in hand-to-hand combat on January 14, 1944, near the village of Kazachikha, Novosokolniki district. On June 4, 1944, she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union. She was also awarded the Order of Lenin.

“During the Leningrad-Novgorod operation in early January 1944, the 54th rifle brigade marched along the front to the city of Novosokolniki (Pskov region), where it broke through the enemy's defenses and advanced north of the city. G.V. Varshavsky, political instructor of the 4th battalion, where the sniper Aliya Moldagulov served, parts of the brigade reached the railway at the Nasva station, where they were met with strong enemy fire. Having occupied the starting lines at night, the Red Army attacked at dawn on January 14, 1944. The battalion, whose actions were covered by snipers, was tasked with cutting the Novosokolniki-Dno railway in the area of Nasva station and seizing the village of Kazachikha. Even though the first line of defense had already been successfully broken through, the attack was drowned out by the strong return fire of the enemy.”

Moldagulova died from a gunshot wound later that day after writing a letter to her sister and was buried in a mass grave in Monakovo, Pskov. On 4 June 1944, she was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

On 23 February 1943, Aliya's group of cadets took the military oath. In July 1943, she and the rest of the group were subsequently assigned to the 54th rifle brigade of the 22nd Army. According to the recollections of one of her fellow soldiers Ya. K. Prokopenkova: “In August 1943, a sniper Aliya Moldagulova arrived in our brigade. A fragile and pretty girl from Kazakhstan. She was only 18 years old, but by October the sniper girl had 32 killed fascists on her account ”. According to the memoirs of N. A. Matveeva: “Here she had to shed a lot of tears before getting to the front line. The reason for this was again her age and height. Leah and I were assigned to one platoon of the 4th battalion. We, snipers, went on missions in pairs, we had positions prepared in advance. We stayed there until they took the Fritz on the fly and let them flow. Then enemy shells and mines fell on us! Leah at such moments showed exceptional fearlessness. She did not only beat the fascists but also carried the wounded comrades from the battlefield and performed them first aid. "

In March 1942, together with the orphanage, Aliya left the besieged Leningrad for the village of Vyatskoye, Yaroslavl Region. On 1 October 1942, after graduating from the 7th grade of the Vyatka secondary school, she entered the Rybinsk Aviation Technical School. She wanted to become a pilot, but she got into a training group specializing in “cold metalworking”. Three months later, Aliya Moldagulova applied to the Red Army with a request to send her to the front. On 21 December 1942, she was expelled from the technical school due to leaving to the front.

On 20 March 1942, by order of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union, a school of sniper instructors was created under the Main Directorate of Vsevobuch. On November 27 of the same year, it reorganized into the Central Women's Sniper Training School. Aliya was included in the first enrollment of this school, which was located in the village of Veshnyaki, near Moscow, on the territory where the Moscow Humanitarian University is now located (Yunosti Street, 5). Classes were held in this building, and the barracks where the cadets lived were set up on the territory of the former estate of the Sheremetevs in Kuskovo.

From the memoirs of N. A. Matveeva, then a student of a sniper school: “On 17 December 1942, I first met Aliya at the Rybinsk City Executive Committee. At that time she looked like a very young teenage girl, she was 17 years old. But Aliya persistently sought to volunteer for the front ... Upon arrival at the school, they underwent a medical examination. Leah and I (I called her that) were enrolled in the fourth company by their height - the smallest. Placed in a greenhouse with three-tiered bunks. Leah and I slept next to each other. It was cold, there was nowhere to dry clothes, soldier's footcloths, shoes. Then our fourth company transferred to a capital barrack, conditions improved. After that, studies began at a sniper school. They learned to shoot accurately, to crawl on their bellies, to be invisible to the enemy. In her studies, Aliya showed perseverance, perseverance in mastering the sniper business ”. In the sniper school, Aliya was awarded a personalized rifle with the inscription "From the Central Committee of the Komsomol for excellent shooting".

In June 1941, with the outbreak of World War II, the family of Aliya's uncle was evacuated. However, young Aliya chose to stay on in Leningrad. When the war broke out, Abubakir Moldagulov sent two telegrams from Tashkent, where he was practicing, to Leningrad. One family - to be urgently evacuated, the second - to a family friend, a certain Aleksey, with a request to help his family leave for Kazakhstan and in no case leave Aliya. However, Aliya did not agree to go to Kazakhstan. Despite the persuasions of family members, she stayed and explained this by the fact that she would defend the Motherland to the end, says Sapar Mogdagulov.

On 8 September 1941, the blockade of Leningrad began. In the memoirs of the former pioneer leader of the orphanage: “At one time, Leah (due to the difficulty of pronunciation, her Russian alternative name is used), having gone with a sled to fetch water, did not return for a long time. She was found lying unconscious in the middle of the street. When the doctor examined Leah, it turned out that she was exhausted to the limit. We barely left. As it turned out later, Leah gave half of her meager bread ration to a small girl, with poor health, Katya. As soon as she got on her feet, she climbed to the roof and together with the others began to put out lighter bombs." And here is a line from the memoirs of the sniper school cadet E.F. Loginova: “She studied well. She was very sincere, attentive.

In 1935 her uncle was admitted to the Military Transport Academy. The entire Moldagulov family moved to Moscow, taking Aliya with them. A few years later, they moved to Leningrad, since the Academy was transferred there. In the fall of 1939, her uncle arranged for 14-year-old Aliya to study at boarding school No. 46. Later, after returning to Kazakhstan, he became one of the top managers of the Kazakh railway.

According to Galymzhan Bayderbes (historian studying the life of Soviet veterans of WWII), Marzhan - that was the name of Aliya's mother - collected the remains of potatoes. It was during the Great Famine of the 30s in Kazakh SSR, and the watchman killed her with a gun. Aliya's mother, Marzhan, died in 1933, after a while Aliya's infant brother, Bagdat, also died at about two years old. Alia was then eight years old. Alia's father at that time was himself almost on the run. Nurmukhanbet was persecuted because he was a descendant of beys. He hastily buried his wife somewhere in the lower reaches of the Kuraili River, where his family lived at that time.

Aliya Nurmuhametqyzy Moldagulova (Russian: Алия Нурмухамбетовна Молдагулова, Kazakh: Әлия Нұрмұхамедқызы Молдағұлова/Äliia Nūrmūhamedqyzy Moldağūlova; 25 October 1925 – 14 January 1944) was a female Soviet sniper during World War II. After dying of wounds sustained in battle on 14 January 1944, she was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for her actions in battle.

Aliya Moldagulova was born on 25 October 1925 in Bulak village (now in the Khobdinsky district of the Aktobe region, Kazakh ASSR). After her mother died when she was eight her father, Nurmukhamet Sarkulov, sent her to be raised by her maternal uncle's Aubakir Moldagulov, who lived in Alma-Ata. It is possible her father was persecuted by the Soviet authorities as a descendant of noblemen.