Evgeny Zhigulenko Biography

The photo is Evgenia Zhigulenko - the biography of Yevgeny Zhigulenko is a Soviet pilot, screenwriter, actress and director. Zhigulenko is the heroine of the Great Patriotic War, the commander of the Night Witches, which consisted exclusively of women. Childhood and youth of Eugene was born in Krasnodar in December. However, the children's years were in the city of Tikhoretsk.

Eugene was born in an ordinary family - her parents were simple workers. From childhood, the girl dreamed of becoming a pilot. Mother tried to dissuade her daughter, but Zhenya did not listen to anyone. Thanks to hard work and the desire for a dream, she managed to get what she wanted. Eugene’s father, like her mother, are immigrants from the orphanage. The couple knew nothing about their ancestors.

During the Civil War, the man used someone else's passport and he managed to evade mobilization. The real name of Andrei Zhigulenko is Mikhail Azarov. Subsequently, Zhenya’s father managed to return his real name and name, but his daughter decided to leave the last name Zhigulenko. School years of the girl took place in Tikhoretsk. At the city stadium, Zhenya often watched paratroopers.

From that moment on, she caught fire to the idea of ​​becoming a professional pilot, which she told her mother. The woman did not approve of her daughter’s ideas, but Zhenya accumulated money and began to train. Zhenya decided to graduate from the ninth grade by external. All summer, she had to prepare and study the school curriculum from morning to evening. In the fall, the girl brilliantly passed the final exams and signed up for the aero club.

However, refusal was waiting for her again. The leadership decided that the girl could not cope with the flight specialty. Eugene did not give up and secretly sent a statement to the military academy. However, women were not accepted there, however, Eugene began to look for other ways. She wrote a letter to the country's defense commissar Kliment Voroshilov.

The girl said that if she wants to study at the Air Academy, she should receive an aviation and technical education. Eugene brought in certificates and decided to go to Moscow. However, the mother did not let her daughter, because the woman did not want Zhenya to become a pilot. Again, Zhigulenko decided not to listen to anyone, but to believe in her own dream. She put the money and went to Moscow, without even telling her parents about it.

Since Zhenya studied perfectly, she was able to enter the university without exams. Ekaterina Timchenko was the best friend of Eugene in his student years. Together, the girls were engaged in an aero club. In the morning they studied at the university, and in the afternoon and evening they made a parachute jump. In addition, the girl was fond of skiing, with pleasure rode on a motorcycle, and also went to artistic shows.

In the summer of the year, Zhenya reached the terrible news about the war, but in Komsomol they refused to send young pilots to war. The girl did not suit such a situation, soon the colonel of the USSR military forces found out to fight about her desire to fight. The military informed the young pilots about the formation of the female aviation part, commanded by Marina Raskova.

In the fall of the year, Katya and Zhenya went to the military aviation school for retraining, and then they left for the front. The war at the front was in the spring. She began the combat service with the rank of navigator, but then she was appointed commander of the civil defense of the aviation regiment. The regiment was engaged in night bomber sorties. The geography of operations with the participation of Evgenia is amazing-with military sorties, she visited the North Caucasus, in the southern composition of the troops of the Transcaucasian Front.

In the fall of the year, she took out the departures as part of a separate Primorsky army. At the end of summer, she was already transported to the 2nd Belorussian Front. After joining the Red Army, the girl began to set records on combat sorties. Eugene was lucky to have long legs, so she faster reached the biplane. Interestingly, the pilot never took a parachute or a machine gun with her.

The fact is that the plane was designed for a very limited weight, so the girl preferred to take on board an extra bomb. When Zhenya took food or ammunition with her, she necessarily dropped all this to Soviet soldiers who were surrounded. At the same time, she tried to shout to them something approved. In the winter of the year, Eugene, being a lieutenant, was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

At the same time, she received the Order of Lenin and the “Golden Star”. They may be familiar.