Kseniya Konstantinova

Kseniya Konstantinova (Ксения Константинова) was a Senior Medical NCO in the 730th Rifle Regiment during World War II. For her service in the military she was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 4 June 1944.

Civilian life
Konstantinova was born on 18 April 1925 to a Russian family in the Tambov Governate of what is now present-day Lipetsk. At the age of 16 after the start of the war she attempted to join the military, but was turned away twice for being too young. She left secondary and medical school before graduating to join the military; she was enrolled in paramedic and obstetric courses.

Military career
Konstantinova joined the Red Army in 1943 after turning eighteen in the spring that year after being rejected by the military twice in the past for being to young. In May she was deployed to the Eastern Front in the 730th Infantry Regiment as a medical instructor. During her free time on the front she played the guitar. She aided the wounded in the battles of Voronezh, Kursk, Kalinin, and Vitebsk and was awarded a medal for battle merit. In Kursk she sustained injuries but soon returned to the war after recovering.

On 1 October, after being surrounded by enemy combatants while protecting injured soldiers from her battalion despite being heavily outnumbered, she eventually ran out of ammunition after making her last stand and sustaining a head injury that knocked her out. She killed roughly 36 soldiers in her last stand before being captured by the Nazis. After capturing her they gouged out her eyes, and cut off her ears, and beat her, but she did not reveal any information about troop movements. After re-capturing the city, Soviet soldiers later found her body mutilated and nailed to the ground; they buried her in the Rudnyansky Cemetery.

Awards

 * Hero of the Soviet Union
 * Order of Lenin
 * Medal "For Battle Merit"

Memorials and honors

 * A song composed by E. Manvelyan titled "Sister of Mercy" is dedicated to Konstantinova and was later adapted into a musical play depicting her life and death in combat.
 * Her portrait is present the Liptesk Hero's square and on a memorial plaque at the midwifery school where she studied; memorial plaques dedicated to her are also present at the Yelets and Smolensk medical schools.
 * Her image was featured in the 1985 postcard series of "Women-physicians-Heroes of the Great Patriotic War" by L. Kotlyarov.