Vera Apollonovna Obolenskaya

Wera Apollonowna Obolenskaya ( Russian Вера Аполлоновна Оболенская ; French form Véra Obolensky ; nom Vicky ) (June * 11 ^{. Jul} / 24. June  1911 ^greg. In Moscow , † 4. August 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a Russian resistance fighter of the Résistance .

Life

Wera was the daughter of the former lieutenant governor of Baku Apollon Apollonowitsch Makarow († 1953). She lived with her family in the French emigration since 1920. After finishing school, she worked as a model and later as a secretary. In 1937 she married Nikolai Alexandrowitsch Obolenski (1900-1979), who came from a former Russian princely family.

At the beginning of the occupation of France by Germany in 1940, she joined the Resistance and became a member of a resistance group. This group was named after the merger with another group Organization Civile et Militaire (OCM). In the underground she was called "Vicky" (Russian " Вики " / " Wiki "). The OSM was engaged in reconnaissance and organized the escape of British prisoners of war. Obolenskaya was general secretary of the organization. She organized liaison with other illegal groups and coordinated joint actions. In 1943 the organization began to work with Soviet prisoners of war . The Nazis tried to smuggle an agent into the organization, but thanks to Vicky, the attempt failed. Since June 1943 she was also active with the partisans of the Forces françaises libres in the Groupe de Dourdan and organized the Union des Patriotes Russes .

Vera Obolenskaya was arrested on December 17, 1943 in a conspiratorial apartment . In prison, she managed to deceive the Gestapo for a long time, and later she made no further statements. In July 1944, after the Allies landed in Normandy , Obolenskaya was transferred to the Barnimstrasse women's prison in Berlin. On August 4, 1944, she was beheaded in Plötzensee prison .

Vladimir Putin on the memorial plaque for Vera Obolenskaya (2000)

A plaque commemorates Vera Apollonovna Obolenskaya on the Monument aux combattants russes in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois near Paris .

Awards

• Order of the Great Patriotic War I. Class
• Croix de guerre with palm branch
• Médaille de la Resistance
• Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur

literature

• Lyudmila Flam: Viki. Knjaginja Vera Obolenskaya . 2nd Edition. Russki Put́, Moscow 2005, ISBN 5-85887-204-2 ( Vicky. The Princess Vera Obolenskaja ; Russian; download ).

Web links

• Vera Obolensky on the website "Les Français Libres" (French)