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Birthday of Maria Tsukanova – medical instructor of Pacific Fleet and only female Hero of the Soviet Union of 1945 Soviet-Japanese War
On September 14th, 1924, Maria Tsukanova was born. She is the only woman to have been awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for her bravery and heroism during the Soviet-Japanese War in 1945.
M. Tsukanova came from the village of Smolenka in Krutinsky district of Tyukalinsky region of Omsk province (now Abatsky district in Tyumen region). Her father, a local teacher, died a few months before her birth, leaving her mother and stepfather to raise her. In 1930, the family moved to Khakassia and then to the village of Ordzhonikidze (now Ordzhonikidzevka in Motyginsky district of Krasnoyarsk Krai). There, she completed her secondary education and planned to enroll in a pedagogical college, but World War II started. Maria went to the military recruitment office, but, due to her age (under 17), she could not join the front. Instead, she worked as a phone operator and later as a nurse in a temporary hospital set up in the village.
After some time, Maria moved to Irkutsk and began working at a machine-building factory. For her dedication and over-achievement, she was honored with the "Home Guard" award. She also completed training courses for medical staff and took care of wounded soldiers in the hospital.
On May 6, 1942, the People's Commissar of the USSR Navy ordered the mobilization of Komsomol and non-Komsomol women aged 19-25 for service in the Navy. Maria, aged 20, volunteered through the Leninsky District Military Commissariat in Irkutsk. She was assigned to the Pacific Fleet, joining the 51st Artillery Division in the Shkot Coastal Defense Sector as a signalman. Until 1944, Maria served in this role, after which she attended a school for junior medical specialists at Naval Hospital No. 8 in Vladivostok. Upon graduation, she joined the 3rd Company of the 355th Separate Battalion of the Marine Corps in the Pacific Fleet as a nurse.
On August 9th, 1945, the Soviet Union entered the war with Japan. Maria Tsukanova, a member of a battalion, was part of a landing force that was tasked with liberating the Japanese-fortified port of Seishin (now known as Chongjin in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea). During a difficult battle, she rescued more than 50 injured soldiers from the field and was herself wounded and captured.
The circumstances of Maria Tsukanova's death in captivity are not reliably established. The citation for the award of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously awarded to her on September 14, 1945, states: "Wounded in the leg, she refused to leave the fighters, overcame the pain, and provided them with every possible assistance. She then lost consciousness and fell into the hands of the Japanese invaders. They mocked her and tried to extract information about our forces, but she remained silent. The Japanese bandits then decided to force her to speak by gouging out her eyes. When they still failed to get any information, they brutally dismembered her body with knives."
She was buried in a mass grave of Soviet soldiers in the city of Seisine. Streets in many cities and towns are named after her, in particular in Omsk, Irkutsk, Barnaul and Krasnoyarsk. Monuments have been erected to her in Vladivostok, Fokino and Chongjin. In the village of Ordzhonikidze (Krasnoyarsk Krai), a secondary school was named after Maria Tsukanova by Order of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR No. 369 dated December 12, 1959. She was permanently enrolled in the lists of the school of sanitary instructors of the Pacific Fleet.
Lit.: Мария Никитична Цуканова // Герои земли Тюменской / автор-составитель Бажин А. И. Тюмень, 2023. С. 142; Цуканова Мария Никитична // Герои Советского Союза: Краткий биографический словарь: [В 2 т.]. Т. 2: Любов – Ящук. М., 1988. С. 704; Шайкова Г. Н. Я очень хочу жить...: исследовательское путешествие по местам, связанным с именем Героя Советского Союза М. Н. Цукановой. Владивосток, 2013.
Based on the materials of the Presidential Library:
Цуканова Мария Никитична [биографическая статья] // Герои Советского Союза: краткий биографический словарь: [В 2 т.]. Т. 2: Любов – Ящук. М., 1988. С. 704 (доступно в электронном читальном зале);
Товбин М. Женщины-медики Герои Великой Отечественной войны: [комплект открыток] / художник В. Котляров. М., 1975 (доступно в электронном читальном зале);
Кручина А. Г. Герои Советского Союза – участники войны с империалистической Японией: [комплект открыток] / художник А. Кручина. М., 1975 (доступно в электронном читальном зале);
Soviet-Japanese War of 1945: [digital collection]
The article was prepared by Tyumen branch of the Presidential Library