132

p February 22-April 6, 1943

p Olga Rzhevskaya. Age 20.

p Obolonovets, Mutishchensky Village Soviet, Yelninsky District.

p Died 27/2-43. (For consorting with the partisans.)

Whoever finds this, please forward it to my parents.

p My dearest Mother,

p Greetings from your daughter Olga. Mama, today, March 6th, makes two months since I last saw freedom, but what does it matter? My dear Mama, you probably heard that we were sent to Spas-Demensk from Yelnya on January 11. The investigation wound up on January 14 and the trial finished on January 23. Up to February 27, I was detained in SpasDemensk. On February 27, they transferred me to the Roslavl prison where I am today. I don’t know about you, but I suppose it’s no use me expecting to see you, my dearest Mother, again. All you can do. Mama, is to treasure that sad day when we had to part. That was January 10th, 1943 (a Sunday) when I had to desert my home village and you, my darling Mother.

p Dear Mama, I have one request of you: don’t worry about me, look after your health. You can’t get me back but you mustn’t lose your health. After all you’re all alone with no one to rely on. Maybe Dusya will come back. Maybe she’s had better luck than I. Mama, I’ll probably be condemned to die in Roslavl, though I thought it would be in SpasDemensk. . . .

p Mama, I must ask you once again not to grieve over meyou won’t help yourself by doing so. And that’s probably my fate. Mama dear, I am now only with Nina, the other three who have been taken with us were removed on February 14, 133 we don’t know where they’ve been taken-home or somewhere else.

p Dearest Mama, just now I’d give anything to hear just one little word from you, from all our family, then I would die peacefully. I know my fate but I can’t help feeling sorry for you, my darling Mother.

Mama, please give my regards to Auntie Lena and her children-Dusya, Valya, Kolya, to Auntie Natasha and Nadya, and Katya, and to all our friends and relations. Mama, my dearest, I’m coming to the end and beg you again not to worry, I’m not the only one, there are many of us. My dear, dear Mother, once more kind regards from your daughter Olya.

p Mama, if only the situation could suddenly change, I would have been back with you. How happy we would have been. But no, Mama, miracles don’t happen in real life. One thing I ask, don’t worry, look after yourself and don’t be sorry for anything....

Mama, I made a calendar out for April and am crossing off the days of my life.

Olga Rzhevskaya was a 20-year-old partisan-scout. At dawn on January 6, 1943, she fell into the hands of the nazis, who came across her when she was ill at her mother’s home in the tiny Smolensk village of Obolonovets. Despite the fact that she was unconscious, the soldiers dragged her in for questioning. After torturing her for four days and getting nowhere, the nazis packed her off to the town of Yelnya, and then on to Spas-Demensk. The abominable prison routine dragged on, daily interrogation and torment. While waiting to be shot, Olga wrote on her neckerchief: "Died February 22.” Then she altered it to "February 23”. Then she had to revise that date every day until February 27.

Olga Rzhevskaya

p On that day, she was transferred to Roslavl prison and her 134


Olga Rzhevskaya’s letter to her mother written on her neckerchief

135 daily count had to be started all over again. Every day the sick girl was dragged out for interrogation. One morning they took her out into the yard and stood her by the gallows.

p “Now you can tell all!" said the officer. "In a minute you will be dead.”

p And she replied:

p “I, Russian girl Olga Rzhevskaya, member of the Y.C.L. and a partisan, hate your guts. I’ve done everything I can to fight you. There are many like me. Your stores have been burnt down and are burning, your soldiers and officers are being killed, your communications cut-I’ve had a hand in it too. Pity I did so little. But I shall be avenged. Soon the Red Army will be here and.. . .”

p A kick from the officer’s boot sent the stool under Olga’s feet spinning, and Olga dangled from the rope. But that wasn’t the end. The girl was pulled out of the noose, revived and shot a few days later.

The letter above was written in a prison cell between interrogation sessions. It was written in pencil in small writing on a white, silk neckerchief. In one corner is a calendar with the 30 days of April 1943. Only the first six days are crossed off.