Yefrosinya Zenkova
Yefrosinya Savelyevna Zenkova (, ; 22 December 1923 – 19 April 1984) was a Soviet Belarusian partisan who was secretary of the underground Komsomol resistance organization nicknamed the "Young Avengers" during the Second World War. She was declared a Hero of the Soviet Union on 1 July 1958 by decree of the Supreme Soviet. Early life Zenkova was born on 22 December 1923 to a Belarusian peasant family in Ushaly village, located within the present-day Shumilina District in the Vitebsk Region of Belarus. After completing secondary school, she attended a vocational school before working as a seamstress at a garment factory in Vitebsk. She later began studying at the local Technical Clothing School, but the school building was bombed by the German Luftwaffe on the day of the students' evaluations. World War II activities After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, Zenkova initially worked in civil defense activities, rescuing people from collapsed buildings and removing unexploded ordnances from streets and rooftops. When the city was surrounded by enemy forces, she did not leave immediately, as she was helping other people with the evacuation. When she tried to escape the city for Soviet-controlled territory, she