Did you know that the heroine of the song ‘Katyusha’ had a prototype?
The song ‘Katyusha’, written in 1938 by poet Mikhail Isakovsky and composer Matvey Blanter, is one of the most famous Soviet songs in the world. During World War II, BM-13 rocket launchers were named in her honor. Sincere lines about Katyusha, going out on a steep high bank, were close to many.
But, it turns out that the heroine is not a fantasy of the authors; she had a real prototype. So, who was Katyusha, who sent her song to the "fighter on the far frontier"?
There are several versions. The most common and plausible goes as follows: poet Mikhail Isakovsky was inspired by the story of Ekaterina Alexeeva - her husband was a border guard and served in the Far East. During the Hassan conflict in the late 1930s, she traveled with him to the front line, worked in a hospital and was awarded the ‘Order of the Red Star’. In 2013, a monument to her was erected in Vladivostok.
