Olga Firsova is a mountaineer who was known by sight throughout the besieged Leningrad. She stormed all the skyscrapers of the city to save people. And it was a real feat that a fragile girl performed every day.
Biography
Olga Afanasyevna Firsova was born in 1911. Then her family lived in Switzerland - her father served there. Later he headed a design bureau in Kharkov, where tanks were developed. His ideas were brought to life in the production of the BT-5 and BT-7 tanks. He also participated in the design of the famous T-34, but in 1936 Afanasy Osipovich was removed from work, in 1937 he was arrested and declared an enemy of the people. There is still no reliable information about his death: there is a version that he was shot almost immediately after his arrest. According to other sources, he died in prison. He was rehabilitated only in 1956, but Olga never renounced her last name, even despite threats.
The family ended up in Leningrad in 1929, and they stayed here for good. Just before the start of the Great Patriotic War, Olga graduated from the conservatory, she was engaged in choral conducting. At the same time, she was passionately interested in mountaineering, in which she eventually had the second category, and ski slalom. In her piggy bank there is an ascent to the Elbrus and Kazbek mountains. While climbing Kazbek, Olga froze her legs, gangrene began, amputation was avoided only by a miracle.
After the outbreak of hostilities, Olga worked in the Leningrad port, where she worked as a loader. Among other things, she had to carry boxes of mines. Here she met N. Ustvolskaya, an architect who was recruiting a team of climbers to work on the skyscrapers of Leningrad. Tall buildings and spiers of houses and palaces served as excellent landmarks for German pilots. After hiding, they partially merged with the gloomy Leningrad sky, complicating the enemy's work.
Four young climbers soon received their first assignment - they had to disguise the spire of the Admiralty. Olga was very light, only 39 kg. But even this weight lost some of the designs. There was also an incident that can be called a baptism of fire for Firsova. Olga was on the spire, doing work, and then a German plane appears from the clouds. The pilot noticed Olga and gave a turn for the girl. She was lucky then and did not hurt her, only the protective cover and the roof broke through.
Each new object of young climbers had its own special design and unique shape. The technique, which was familiar in the mountains, had to be adjusted to the new conditions.
The materials used to protect the various spiers and structures left much to be desired at the time. They quickly torn, after getting wet and drying they crawled. In addition, they were constantly vomited by shrapnel during bombing. Climbers had to climb objects again and again and restore the entire structure, sewing covers in the wind, in the rain, in uncomfortable positions.
At the end of the war, Olga Firsova took off her disguise. And this work was much easier and more enjoyable.
After the war
After the victory, Olga began to teach young people what she knew and could best of all. She worked as a trainer-instructor at DSO "Art" in three areas: mountaineering, rock climbing and alpine skiing. It was in “Art” that she herself learned all the basics of her difficult profession.
Then she led choral groups and raised children - in clubs at the University, in the Palace of Culture. Lensovet. This business will also become one of the main in her life.
Already in 1946, she began performing at sports competitions. She took second place in the championship of Leningrad. With her first husband, M. Shestakov, she conquered the Caucasian peak of Bashkar.
Olga worked in sports camps, conquered the peaks. For 10 years of its work, not a single emergency has occurred. She took part in rescue operations, for example, on the Bzhedukh summit (then several Muscovites died).
Awards
Olga Firsova was awarded the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga for saving the monuments of Leningrad and historical buildings.
In 1971, her many years of teaching work was appreciated. For the musical education of young people she was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor. And only almost half a century after the Great Victory, she was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples for her siege feat.
Personal life
Olga's first husband was her fellow student at the conservatory Mikhail Shestakov, who was also fond of mountaineering.
In the second marriage with Joseph Nechaev, Olga had a daughter (in 1951), who was named the same as her. They lived modestly in a communal apartment on Gorokhovaya Street. There were 14 rooms in which restless neighbors lived. Only in 1970, Olga Firsova and her daughter (her husband died in 1967) moved to a one-room apartment, which was allocated by the state.
In 1999, Firsova left Russia to live with her daughter, who lived in Germany after marriage.
Olga Afanasyevna passed away at the age of 95, it happened in Berlin on November 10, 2005. At the request of the deceased, she was buried next to her second husband - at the Northern Cemetery in St. Petersburg.
