Evgenia Molushnikova
The nurses who provided communications to the troops
Story by Adina Victoria Somrukova
Photo by Adina Victoria Somrukova
From an early age Evgenia had to learn to survive on her own, as she grew up with her two sisters in an orphanage after their mother passed away and their father left for the United States. She was born on July 20, 1925, and later she and her sisters studied electronics and radio operations in a special program. When the war broke out, they were sent to Tobolsk, and shortly thereafter, she and her sisters were instructed to move to the military front in the Leningrad area to provide communications to combat units. "We would much rather have died from a bullet than from starvation" she says.
On the front, the army was armed with land mines, and the radio factory personnel were all equipped with rifles, including Evgenia. She moved with the troops to the Leningrad area, western Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, and in recognition of her actions she and her sisters received medals.
She immigrated to Israel in 1992 and currently lives in Jerusalem.