Birth of underground worker of Karelia during the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union Maria Vladimirovna Melentyeva

Maria Vladimirovna Melentyeva was born on January 24, 1924 in the village of Pryazha of the Autonomous Karelian Socialist Soviet Republic into the Karelian peasant family of Vladimir Averyanovich and Evdokia Andreevna Melentyev. She studied at Pryazhinsky secondary and Svyatozersky junior high schools. She studied well, was fond of sports, and took an active part in public life. After graduating from school in 1941, she worked as a postal operator.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, she worked on the construction of defence structures, as a nurse in evacuation hospital № 1123 in Segezha. From March 1942 she studied at a special school at the Central Committee of the Komsomol of the Karelo-Finnish SSR to prepare for underground work behind enemy lines.

On June 15, 1942, M. V. Melentyeva and A. M. Lisitsyna were sent as liaison officers of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Karelo-Finnish SSR to the enemy’s rear - the occupied Sheltozero (now Prionezhsky) Region. Within a month, they created safe houses for underground work and collected important information about the location of enemy units in the occupied territory. When returning from a combat mission, Anna Lisitsyna died tragically - she drowned while crossing the Svir River (posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union). Left alone, Maria Melentyeva spent five days without clothing or food through forests and swamps to the location of the 276th Infantry Division of the 7th Army of the Karelian Front and transmitted valuable intelligence information. After treatment in the hospital on October 17, 1942 in Belomorsk, M. V. Melentyeva was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

On the night of November 1 to 2, 1942, M. V. Melentyeva with a group of scouts crossed behind enemy lines, to the Segozersky district, in order to establish contact with the underground district party committee. As a result of betrayal, the scouts were discovered by the enemy and captured. On November 8, 1942, in the vicinity of the village of Topornaya Gora, Medvezhyegorsk district, they were shot.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated September 25, 1943, Maria Vladimirovna Melentyeva was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. M.V. Melentyeva and A. M. Lisitsyna are the only women among the natives of Karelia who were awarded the high title of “Hero of the Soviet Union”.

The memory of the heroine's feat is preserved. The burial place of M. V. Melentyeva in the village of Topornaya Gora, Medvezhyegorsk district of Republic of Karelia, is an object of historical and cultural heritage of Karelia. In the village of Pryazha and the city of Petrozavodsk, monuments to the heroine were erected (author - People's Artist of the RSFSR L. F. Lankinen), streets were named in her honor. In the village of Pryazha, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where M. V. Melentyeva spent her childhood and school years. From 1969 to 2004 The M. V. Melentyeva Pryazha Museum of Military Glory was open. The name of the heroine is named after the Pryazha secondary school, on the facade of which a memorial plaque was unveiled on March 15, 2019. The name of M. V. Melentyeva is immortalized on the memorial plates of the gallery of Heroes of the Soviet Union - natives of Karelia, as well as the complex in honor of soldiers of the Karelian Front, partisans and underground fighters of Karelia in the city of Petrozavodsk. A tugboat and a motor ship of the White Sea-Onega Shipping Company were named in honor of M. V. Melentyeva.

The feat of the young girls Maria Melentyeva and Anna Lisitsyna touched the hearts of poets, writers and storytellers, composers, artists and theater workers. Runes, stories, poems, paintings and musical works are dedicated to their tragic destinies. The famous Karelian storyteller T. A. Perttunen composed the rune “Hero of the Soviet Union Maria Melentyeva”. A whole galaxy of writers - G. S. Fish, B. A. Schmidt, T. O. Guttari, Y. V. Rugoev, V. F. Bokov, R. V. Takala, I. A. Kostin, A. A. Gordienko and others - dedicated her creativity to the heroine’s feat. In 1959, the premiere of the play “Immortal Stars”, dedicated to the feat of the underground women, took place on the stage of the National Theater of Karelia (the authors of the play are A. A. Ivanov and G. B. Grakov, staged by V. E. Suni). The play, among the best theatrical productions, was presented at the Ten Day of Karelian Art and Literature in Moscow in 1959. People's Artist of the Russian Federation V. S. Chekmasov painted the painting “Maria Melentyeva and Anna Lisitsyna on a mission” which is kept in the collections of the National Museum of Karelia.

Лит.: Герой Советского Союза Мария Владимировна Мелентьева (1924–1942 гг.) : список литературы / Национальная библиотека Республики Карелия, Пряжинская районная детская библиотека-музей им. Героя Советского Союза М. В. Мелентьевой; технический редактор О. В. Федоровская; редактор О. П. Кошкина. Петрозаводск, 1999; Дом-музей Героя Советского Союза Марии Мелентьевой / Карельский государственный краеведческий музей; сост. О. А. Соколова. Петрозаводск, 1985; Калинина Е. А. Пряжинский район в годы Великой Отечественной войны. 1941–1944 гг. : документы, материалы, воспоминания. Петрозаводск, 2020. (Из содерж.: Мария Владимировна Мелентьева, уроженка п. Пряжа, Герой Советского Союза. С. 284–314; Музей Боевой Славы имени М. В. Меленьевой. С. 344–359); Кораблёв Н. А. Мелентьева Мария Владимировна // Карелия : энциклопедия. В 3 т. Т. 2. К-П. Петрозаводск, 2009. С. 208–209; М. В. Мелентьева : (к 70-летию со дня рождения) // Календарь памятных дат Карелии, 1994 год. Петрозаводск, 1993. С. 10–12; Мелентьева М. В. // Героям Родины – Слава! Петрозаводск, 1970. С. 302–303; Мелентьева М. В. // Герои Советского Союза : краткий биографический словарь. М., 1988. Т. 2. С. 67; Мелентьева М. В. // Твои герои, Карелия. Петрозаводск, 2005. С. 61; Мелентьева М. В. // Герои финно-угорских народов России в годы Великой Отечественной войны 1941–1945 гг. Саранск, 2020. С. 368; Памятник М. В. Мелентьевой, Герою Советского Союза // Объекты историко-культурного наследия города Петрозаводска. Петрозаводск, 2013. С. 152; Памятник М. В. Мелентьевой, пгт Пряжа, ул. Советска, сквер // Великая Отечественная война в Карелии : памятники и памятные места. Петрозаводск, 2015. С. 261–262.

Based on the Presidential Library's materials:

Республика Карелия: страницы истории: [цифровая коллекция]

Память о Великой Победе: [цифровая коллекция]

The article has been prepared by the National Library of Republic of Karelia