Maria Borisovna Osipova is a well-known underground anti-fascist. Conducted its activities in Minsk. During the occupation, she organized the first underground group there. She helped develop the plan and participated in the liquidation of Wilhelm Kube (the High Commissioner of Belarus). In 1943 she became a Hero of the Soviet Union. In this article, we will describe her brief biography.
Childhood
Maria Osipova (née Sokovtsova) was born in 1908 in the Mogilev province. The girl's parents worked at a local glass factory. Maria started working at the age of 13. Like her parents, she got a job at a glass factory. The future underground worker was also actively engaged in social and political work. Sokovtsova headed the regional organization of pioneers. In 1924, the girl attended the 6th Congress of the RKSM, where she was elected a delegate. It was there that she met Yakov Osipov, whom she eventually married.
Study
In 1933, Maria moved to Minsk with her family. There, the future heroine submitted documents to the Higheragricultural school of Lenin. She successfully graduated two years later. In 1940, Maria Osipova (see photo below) defended her diploma from the Minsk Law Institute. After that, she received a referral to work in the Supreme Court of the Byelorussian SSR.
Start of war
When the occupation of Minsk began, Maria Osipova, together with A. A. Sokolova (teacher at the Law Institute), organized the first underground anti-fascist group. Initially, it consisted of only 14 members. But by September 1943, there were already 50 active members in Hanna Chernaya's group. Underground workers helped their prisoners of war, hid Jews, distributed reports of the Soviet Information Bureau and leaflets. After establishing contact with the partisans (in 1941), they were often involved in reconnaissance and sabotage operations. In the same year, the Minsk conspiratorial city committee contacted the group. Maria Osipova was appointed as a liaison between the leadership of the underground and several partisan detachments. Among them: the 200th named after Rokosovsky, "Zheleznyak", the brigades "Uncle Kolya", "Local", "Dima".
Murder Cuba
Operation "Retribution" has become the largest in the underground activities of the heroine of this article. In the course of it, Wilhelm Kube, who held the post of General Commissar of Belarus, was liquidated. He was responsible for the deaths of a large number of civilians. The operation was based on data obtained through the intelligence work of N. P. Fedorov. Using the available information, the deputy commander of the Dima detachment gave Maria Borisovna a task. Osipova was supposed to recruit an agent from amongthose who worked in the home of Cuba. Soon N. V. Pokhlebaev introduced her to a girl named Valentina Shutskaya. The latter was the sister of Elena Mazanik, who worked as a servant in the house of Cuba. It was Shutskaya who organized the meeting between Mazanik and Osipova. As a result, the underground workers persuaded Elena to their side. On September 20, 1943, Maria Osipova, risking her own life, delivered a mine with a chemical fuse to the capital of Belarus. In order not to arouse suspicion, the girl disguised it in a basket of lingonberries. Then Maria handed it to Elena, who planted explosives under the mattress of the general's bed. The device went off on the night of September 22, 1943. Wilhelm Kube did not survive. Osipova and Mazanik, as active participants in the operation, were awarded the titles of Heroes of the USSR.
After the war
When the Red Army liberated Belarus, the successful underground worker returned to Minsk. There, Maria Osipova, whose biography was presented above, was actively involved in the process of restoring the city destroyed by the battles. Then she came to grips with politics, heading the pardon department at the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Belarus. Also, Maria Borisovna was a member of the Republican Committee for the Protection of Peace and the Supreme Court of the country. From 1947 to 1963 she worked as a deputy.
Osipova's great merit is that she actively participated in the process of rehabilitation of members of the Belarusian underground, who were unfairly accused of collaborating with the Germans. The woman vouched for several hundred people who were inanti-fascist groups. After retirement, Maria Borisovna participated in the veterans' movement and was engaged in patriotic education of the younger generation. Osipova died in 1999. Her grave can be found at the East (Moscow) cemetery in Minsk.
