Mariya Osipova

Mariya Borisovna Osipova (, ; 27 December 1908 – 5 February 1999) was a Soviet Belarusian partisan who provided Yelena Mazanik with the bomb she used to kill Wilhelm Kube, Generalkommissar of Nazi-occupied Belarus. For doing so, Osipova and her co-conspirators were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 29 October 1943.

Early life Osipova was born to a Belarusian peasant family in Serkavitsy, in the Mogilev Governorate of the Russian Empire. She started working at a glass factory at the age of 13 and was the chairman of her young pioneer chapter. In 1924 she met her husband, Yakov Osipov, while she was delegate to the 6th Komsomol Congress. Later she married and changed her surname from Sokovtsova to Osipova. In 1928 she became a member of the Communist Party and graduated from the Agricultural School of Minsk in 1935. She then went on to attend law school, which she graduated from in 1940 before serving at the Supreme Court of the Byelorussian SSR. She left her job at the Supreme Court to work as an assistant at a law practice in May 1941, just a few weeks before the start of the war.

World War II

Early resistance activities Shortly after German forces took over Minsk, Osipova worked with a teacher at the law school where she had previously studied to organize a resistance movement that would be headquartered at the school. The partisan group started off with 14 members, but by 1943 the organization had 50 active members. Initially the organization printed anti-Axis leaflets, provided hiding for the city's Jews facing persecution, and helped Soviet prisoners of war escape from German custody. After the group contacted a partisan detachment in 1941, the organization began conducting reconnaissance and sabotage missions against the German military. By late 1941 the group was in communication with the Communist Party of Byelorussia. Since then, Osipova served as the communication liaison between her unit and several other partisan units including the "Dima" unit commanded by D. Keimakh, the "Mestnyye" unit commanded S. Vaupshasov, the "Dyadi Koli" brigade commanded by N. Nikitin, the "Zheleznyak" brigade commanded by I. Titkov, and the "200th" unit named in honor of K. Rokosovsky. She also wrote for the underground newspaper "Zvezda" that was circulated throughout German-occupied Minsk. The partisans sheltered prisoners of war and Jewish refugees in their attics. On sabotage operations the partisans would steal weapons and medicine from the German military, stockpile them, and provide them to other partisans and refugees as needed. Osipova's pseudonym was Chernaya.

Later life After the end of the war Osipova returned to Minsk to participate in the reconstruction of the war-torn city. She later worked in the office of Vasily Kozlov, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Byelorussian SSR, and from 1947 to 1963 she was a deputy in the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR. She had also headed the pardon department of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Belarus and worked to get many members of the Minsk resistance rehabilitated after myths spread that the Minsk resistance was engaged in collaboration with the Nazis. She died at the age of 90 on 5 February 1999 and was buried in the Eastern Cemetery of Minsk.