A Veteran's Tale

Svetlana Pavlovna Voronova, now 80, didn’t have friends in high places in the winter of 1942, and, considering the enormous risks of interfering with the proceedings in a Soviet tribunal, it would probably not have helped. What saved Voronova’s life was the loyalty of a handful of wounded Soviet soldiers whom she had befriended in the crowded wards of one of Moscow’s biggest military hospitals. Because of her dedication and big heart, they said, “The authorities be damned.” After all, she had dressed their wounds, read to them, sang songs with them; she had given them solace. She wrote letters for them or attempted to contact their relatives and friends as best as she was able in the confusion of the Nazi siege of the capital. Now it was their turn to come to her aid.

The Beginning

To say the least, Voronova was an overachiever. At the tender age of 24, she had achieved the unlikely rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Soviet Army.