Zinaida Antonovna Korneva

Korneva Zinaida Antonovna
Birth name	Blohina Zinaida Antonovna
Born	27 September 1922
Service/branch	ASWC Troops
Years of service	1941—1945
Rank	Sergeant
Children	Borisevich (Korneva) Olga Borisovna
Website	https://zinastories.com/eng

Zinaida Antonovna Korneva (formerly Blokhina; born 1922, village Oktyabrskoe, now in the Orenburg region) is a retired Soviet soldier of Air Surveillance, head of the observation post and healthcare activist.^[1] On April 25, 2020, at the age of 97, she began a charity event "The Stories of Zinaida Korneva", in which she wrote down stories and posted to YouTube about her life and the Great Patriotic War to raise money in support of Russian doctors who working in the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] The Russian public organization of war and labor veterans (pensioners) helped in the collection and distribution of charitable funds. The videos were published by friends and family on the YouTube channel and attracted attention not only in Russia,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} but in other countries.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]} 4.5 million rubles were collected.^[14]

Biography[]

She was born in the village of Oktyabrskoye (now in the Orenburg region) in the family of an accountant and a housewife. She has Russian origin.^[15]

After graduating from school, she entered the Bashkir-Tatar Pedagogical School in the city of Buguruslan.^[15]

In the spring of 1942 , she received a summons and was called up for the war. She studied military skills in Kalmykia, where she took an oath in early May. During her studies, she improved her shooting skills, studied the types of aircraft using classified albums. In the summer of 1942, as part of the 44th separate battalion, Air Surveillance troops was transferred to the Rostov region, where observation posts were deployed to defend Stalingrad.^[15]

In November 1942, she was appointed Head of the observation post. On her combat account there were 239 correctly identified enemy aircraft.^[16]

In the summer of 1943, the battalion was transferred to Kharkov Kharkov region and united with the First Ukrainian Front. As part of the 1st Ukrainian Front, she went through all of Ukraine and participated in the liberation of Poland. In April and May 1945 the Air Surveillance battalion, in which Korneva served, took part in the operation to liberate Breslau (now Wroclaw). She was in the suburb of Olau (Olava) on 9th of May.^{[citation needed]}

In 1946 1946 she married Boris Georgievich Kornev and moved to Leningrad. Daughter: Borisevich (Korneva) Olga Borisovna.^[17]

In 1946 she began to work as a teacher at the male school number 330. In 1952 she quit for health reasons. After that, she worked at the defense enterprise «Signal» in the technical control department. She was the secretary of the Party organization, worked with the Komsomol members on the history of the party, was the secretary of the district electoral commission - for which she received the medal "Badge of Honor" on April 26, 1971.^[18]

On October 2, 2020, Zinaida Korneva was awarded a commemorative medal of the IC of Russia "75 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."^[19]

Zinaida Korneva's initiative[]

Photo of Zinaida Korneva in 2020

In 2020, she learned about British veteran Tom Moore,^[20] who began raising funds as part of the NHS Charities Together to support the UK's National Health Service.^[21] Inspired, Zinaida decided to hold the same action in Russia. On April 25, 2020, a fundraising campaign was announced to support doctors,^[2] affected by COVID-19, and the project "Appeal to Tom Moore" was launched.^[22]

Together with you, we defeated fascism in the 45th, and now we are fighting this virus together.

—   YouTube channel of Zinaida Korneva

Fundraising to help doctors began on May 1. Later, a YouTube channel was launched on which the veteran told stories about the war and her life in support of the initiative.^[23] The Russian media are actively covering the initiative.^{[7][6][5][3][4]}

On May 4, the BBC TV channel interviewed the veteran and released a report on her initiative.^[9] The next day, the world agencies Associated Press and Reutersincluded the news about the project in their feeds.^[10][11] Zinaida gave an interview to western hemisphere TV channels abcNEWS,^[12] French and English editions of Radio-Canada.^[13] On May 9 in the hometown of the veteran Korneva, social advertising was placed on 100 main screens and banner boards at the initiative of the city hall.

Within two weeks of the launch of the aid initiative, the mission was managed to raise 3,000,000 rubles to help the families of doctors who died from COVID-19.^[24]

On May 20, a teleconference was organized between Britain and Russia,^[25] during which Zinaida Korneva was able to talk with a British colleague Sir Tom Moore.^[26][27]

The UN highly appreciated the contribution of Russian veteran Zinaida Korneva to the fight against COVID-19.^[28]

By June 6, the amount of collected funds reached 4,000,000, 135 families from different regions received assistance from these funds.^[29]

On June 17, the St. Petersburg city hall's office filed a petition for awarding Zinaida Korneva with the Distinction badge “For Beneficence” For significant personal contribution to the development of volunteerism, preservation of the traditions of mercy, gratuitous assistance aimed at combating the spread of socially dangerous diseases”.^[30]

On June 24, she attended the Victory Parade online and a teleconference with the governor of St. Petersburg.^[31]

On June 27, she became one of the participants in a teleconference with President Vladimir Putin, during which she explained why she had decided to announce a fundraising. The President thanked Zinaida and emphasized how amazing it is that at such a solid age, a veteran finds the strength to help other people as well.^[32]

On July 6, Valery Fadeev, Chairman of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, conveyed a letter of gratitude to Zinaida Korneva and discussed with her the support of doctors' families.^[33]

On July 30, Zinaida Korneva and her relative Dmitry Panov, coordinator of the project to help doctors, addressed the TEDx conference. In their report “Pandemic of Solidarity: Doctors are not abandoned in battle,” they talked about the unique volunteer experience of organizing fundraising for the families of health workers who died from COVID-19.^[34]

On August 27, 2020, the project “Zinaida Korneva's Initiative” received the National Award “Media Manager of Russia-2020”. The award was received by Dmitry Panov, a member of the family of Zinaida Korneva, managing partner of Wallet One / RNKO "Edinaya Kassa".^[35][36]

On November 23, 2020, the President of the Russian Federation awarded Zinaida with the Distinction Badge "For Beneficence". “To award Zinaida Antonovna Korneva, the city of St. Petersburg, with a Distinction Badge 'For Beneficence', the city of St. Petersburg, for her great contribution to charitable and social activities,” the document says.^[37]

On December 10, 2020, Sergei Shabanov, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Saint Petersburg Region, on behalf of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Tatyana Moskalkova, presented the «Hurry to Do Good» Award to 98-year-old Zinaida Antonovna Korneva, veteran of the Great Patriotic War.^[38]

References[]

External links[]

• Zinaida Korneva's initiative website