The legendary front-line traffic controller Maria Limanskaya has died

18-year-old Masha went to the front in 1942 and received her baptism of fire at the crossing of the Don in Bataysk, which was constantly bombed by German aircraft. Almost died there. And more than once during the war years she missed death.

During the Potsdam Conference, the traffic controller had a chance to talk with Churchill. The motorcade with the British Prime Minister stopped next to her. Churchill got out of the car and, through an interpreter, asked the girl if British soldiers were hurting her. Masha replied that our soldiers will protect us.

In the spring of 1945, the famous front-line photojournalist Evgeniy Khaldey took a photograph of Maria at the traffic police post against the backdrop of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Long after the war, the photograph was first published in the magazine “Rabotnitsa”.

Since then, the portrait of the traffic police girl has been reprinted several times and has become a kind of symbol of the victorious spring of 1945. And journalists called her all sorts of things: “Victory Girl”, “Russian Spring”, “Brandenburg Madonna”…

…Several years ago, in the neighboring city of Mars, not far from Zvonarevka, a monument was erected to Maria Filippovna. She herself modestly believed that this was a monument not to her, but to all the traffic police girls who fought at the front. I corresponded with my military friends for many years, and, apparently, the last of my fellow soldiers has now left.