FEMALE TANK SOLDIERS OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR: THE URAL ASPECT
The article is the first in the regional historiography to give a detailed analysis of participation of the Ural female tank soldiers in the Great Patriotic War. Based on studying of the collected materials the paper defines the number of all female tankers in the country including those belonged to the Ural region by their birth, residence, work, studying at the military educational institutions or formation of tank units; it also clarifies the fates of all of them. The author reveals little-known facts of forming family tank crews, which took place only in the Urals. The article contains data on the elements of the tank educational network formed in the Urals during the Great Patriotic War, on specifics of education process and living conditions. It gives examples of women's participation in externship at the tank plants, which is the Urals' specificity during the period of tankers training, in military acceptance and in construction and tests of the tank equipment as well. The original fact base of the research form documents from the Central archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Chelyabinsk region United State Archive, the consolidated electronic data bank “People's act of bravery” of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, central and regional museums, information published in scientific, memoir literature and journalism and the author's private funds.