Evgeniya Rudneva

Evgeniya Maksimovna Rudneva (Russian: ??????? ?????????? ???????), also known as Zhenya Rudneva (???? ???????) (Berdiansk, December 24, 1920 – April 9, 1944 near Kerch) was a Soviet military air navigator, Hero of the Soviet Union, a member of Moscow branch of the Astronomical-Geodesical Society of the USSR, head of the Solar Department. She was Ukrainian, born in the family of office worker. She has completed three years as a student in the Faculty of mechanics and mathematics of Moscow State University prior to October 1941, when she volunteered for Soviet Army. Graduated from Navigator School. After that since May 1942 she fought at the front of the Great Patriotic War. There she served in the rank of Guards Senior Lieutenant as a navigator in the women-equipped 588th Night Bomber Regiment, later turned to the 46th Taman' Guards Night Bomber Regiment (325th Night Bomber Aviation Division, 6th Air Army, 2nd Byelorussian Front). Member of CPSU since 1943.

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She flew 645 night combat missions on the old and slow Polikarpov Po-2 biplane, destroying river crossings, troop trains, troops and military equipment of the enemy. Perished valiantly while flying her 645th combat mission near village Bulganak, to the north of Kerch, shot down by the Flak, along with her pilot Panna Prokofyeva.

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In her letter to the professor Sergei N. Blazhko, head of Astrometry Department of the Moscow State University, October 19 1942 she wrote, that her first bomb she promised Nazis for the building of the Faculty of mechanics and mathematics, which was bombed by them in winter; she wrote, that she defends the honor of the university.

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Russian: Russian can mean:...

Berdiansk: Berdiansk (, Berdians?k; , Berdyansk) is a port city in southeastern Ukraine within the Zaporizhia Oblast (province). It sits on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov and it is also a health resort with mud-baths and climatic treatments.....

1920: 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar)...