p January 1944

The awful, horrible minute is approaching! My whole body is mutilated-I’ve practically no hands, no legs.. .. But I die without uttering a sound. It’s terrible to die at 22. How I want to live! We depart for the sake of those coming after us, for your sake, my country. ... Blossom, be beautiful, my native land, and farewell. Your Pasha.

p Pasha Savelyeva was born into a peasant family and went to school in the town of Rzhev. In the summer of 1940, after graduating from the Moscow College of Finance and Economics, she went to work in Lutsk. She was there when war broke out. Failing to evacuate to the east, she decided to fight the occupational forces in the town. After a while, she formed an underground group with other young people. The courageous underground fighters gathered information about the location of Hitler’s troops, engaged in sabotage, assisted in the escape of Soviet prisoners and supplied them with documents and clothing. In early summer 1943, the group managed to establish contact with the partisans operating somewhere near under the command of D. Medvedev, Hero of the Soviet Union.

p They got their hands on the nazi plan of Lutsk with all the military objectives clearly marked. On instructions from the partisan centre, they caused the Germans a lot of trouble on the railway. The nazis were run off their feet trying to discover the people behind the underground resistance.

p On December 22, 1943, the Gestapo made a late call on Pasha Savelyeva. After horrible torture and suffering, the nazis burned the young patriot in January 1944 in the courtyard of an old, medieval Catholic church, which the Germans had turned into a large torture chamber.

p An hour before execution she managed to pass the following note to the cell next to her: "If they bring us out together let’s try and make a break for it. Perk up!" But they had no chance.

She scratched the above inscription with a nail on her cell wall just a few minutes before she was executed.