Executioner by vocation. The true story of Tonka the machine gunner

“What nonsense, that then remorse is tormented, that those whom you kill come later at night in nightmares, I still have not dreamed of a single one,”- so coolly and calmly answered Antonina Makarova (Ginzburg) to the questions of the investigators.

In the words of Antonin Makarov, the executioner woman did not have any remorse or regret, later the operatives recalled with surprise how calmly suspected, she talked about the mass executions that she personally committed.

Antonina Malyshkina who is this

It made no difference to her who was standing in front of the sight - all those sentenced to death were the same, she did not know those whom she was shooting, they did not know her.
At least this is how Anka the machine gunner calmed herself at first, and then she got into the habit, she even liked to execute people. Usually a young Soviet girl shot a group of 27 people, the arrested were placed in a chain, at the command of her superiors, Tonya (Antonina Ginzburg) knelt down and shot at people until everyone fell dead.
- From the film "Two Lives of Tonka the Machine Gunner". Tonka machine gunner photo:

27 people - so many were placed in the stall of the Lokot stud farm, occupied by the Germans during the Great Patriotic War, where they created a prison for prisoners and a mini-republic with their own rules. The Russians who went over to the side of the Germans were provided with favorable living conditions, Tonka the machine gunner became one of those and this is a real story. However, her role in the "creation" of the republic horrified even worldly-wise Germans.
It will be about one of the most terrible characters of the Great Patriotic War.

Tonka machine gunner real biography

It was a woman, she was Russian, young (according to some sources, she was 19 years old at the time the executions began, according to others - 21 years old), either driven into a corner by the horrors of that time, or a predator by nature ... She killed (shot from a machine gun ) captured Russians - men, women, old people, children ... The number of victims per day reached 90-100 people, in total, "Tonka the machine gunner" sent more than 1,500 people to the Other World, according to official data. Tonka machine gunner is a true story. Wikipedia provides comprehensive information regarding Anka the machine gunner and her biography.

“Antonina Makarovna Makarova (nee Parfenova, according to other sources - Panfilova, married Ginzburg; 1920, Malaya Volkovka, Sychevsky district, Smolensk province (according to other sources, was born in 1923 in Moscow) - August 11, 1979, Bryansk) - executioner of Lokotsky district during the Great Patriotic War, who shot more than 1,500 people in the service of the German occupation authorities and Russian collaborators. Antonina Makarovna Ginzburg has not yet been declassified from her case.

At the time of the executions, she was also known as "Tonka the machine gunner". "Tonka the machine gunner is an antihero biography, as the Wikipedia says of a young Russian girl choosing her own path."

Executioner Tonka

Only thanks to excerpts from interrogations that became known to the public, it was possible to plunge into this case, which took place during the war years near Bryansk. Tonka machine-gunner regarding her biography has a lot of information on Wikipedia. It is difficult to imagine what was going on in her head, how her consciousness could turn over that a young girl turned into an executioner. Tonka machine gunner where did the name come from, what Wikipedia says about her, her biography photo. How can a woman be so cruel. The most important thing in all this is what she felt after the war, when she began to live a peaceful life among people under the guise of an ordinary veteran woman. She managed to start a family, she became the mother of two children.

Tonka machine gunner information about her biography will not leave anyone indifferent. Photo

Captivity

During the war, after the bombing, Antonina Malyshkina survived and was taken prisoner. In the village of Lokot, in the Bryansk region, the population set up by the Nazis lived in abundance and in every possible way destroyed the partisans and the civilian population that interfered with this. Antonina could have gone into the forest to the partisans, but she did not do this, but wanted a satisfying life, which she then had to work out. So she began to shoot civilians on orders. The first time was hard, but after I drank a glass of schnapps in one gulp, everything went like clockwork. So at each execution, she shot up to 30 people from a maxim machine gun, who survived, finished off with a pistol.

Tonka machine gunner biography of her beginning

So she got a job with the Nazis, but before that she took an oath of allegiance to the Wehrmacht. Tonka machine gunner, what is her biography. Tonka came to the village Lokot consciously, since the pro-fascist population had no problems with either clothes or food, at a time when there was hunger and devastation everywhere.

After the next execution, Tonka went to relax in the club, where she entertained German officers and soldiers. Having fun until you drop, Antonina was preparing for the next execution. Before the execution, the thin woman dressed up in the clothes of a Soviet officer and went to shoot another batch of local residents.
As Tonka later said during interrogations by investigators, it was just her job, which she did well. Anka the machine gunner inspired fear in the whole village, her biography speaks of this. In this village, the executioner who Tonka was, everyone knew and tried not to meet her.
After the capture by our troops of the village of Lokot, all accomplices of the Nazis were destroyed, but Antonina disappeared without a trace. For a long time after the war, terrible legends about the executioner girl circulated in the village of Lokot. She was searched for a long time, the case was transferred to the archive several times, but not closed. This woman's crimes were too serious. Makarova was searched all over the country, but to no avail, and she lived in the USSR all this time.

what was the mystery of Tony

She acted simply, forged documents, they said that during the war years she worked as a nurse. According to these documents, in 1944 she got a job in a mobile military hospital. In which she looked after the wounded without fear, neither blood, nor mutilation of the fighters. One of these fighters fell in love with Tonya. After the war with this soldier, she moved with him to his homeland in Lepel, a small Belarusian town. She took her husband's surname, covering her tracks and starting a new life. Antonina and her husband received a free apartment from the state, since both were participants in the Great Patriotic War.

New life of Antonina Ginzburg

Tonka is a machine-gunner, her biography is many-sided. By the day of victory, both husband and wife were awarded the prize. Antonina, working at a garment factory, gave birth to two daughters. Tonka machine gunner her children and husband photo:

Neither neighbors nor work colleagues suspected what kind of person lives and works next to them. She was so careful that even her husband had no idea. Tonka machine-gunner took on the guise of a Soviet man and hung on the honor roll in her production. Antonina Ginzburg worked as an inspector in the workshop, checking the quality of tailoring of jackets and other products. Sometimes also carefully, she examined the clothes from the innocent people she killed. Now she was looking for defects in factory products. Colleagues and superiors said one thing about her, a very conscientious and responsible worker. True, Antonina did not have a single girlfriend, although she worked at the factory for a long time. People seemed to be repelled by something. At work, she led a secluded life, did not participate in entertainment events, so as not to give herself away. All her life she did not live, but suffered, remembering what she had done. It is quite possible that Antonina could live quietly to old age, but fate decreed otherwise, chance helped.

Follow the executioner

In 1976, a young Muscovite named Panfilov was going on a trip abroad. It was the brother of Antonina Makarova Ginzburg, he had to fill out a questionnaire in which the man had to indicate all his relatives. This is where an interesting detail came up, all his brothers and sisters bore the name Panfilov, and for some reason one sister Antonina was Makarova. At school, the teacher, according to the words of the children, incorrectly wrote down the last name, and this confusion saved Antonina Makarova Ginzburg from retribution for so long. The investigators knew that Anya the machine-gunner had sisters and brothers, but after checking a thousand namesakes, they could not get to the bottom of the truth. But after the incident with a Moscow relative, the investigators managed to find Makarova Ginzburg and they had to carefully check everything, since she was considered a respected person in the city. There was little evidence and no other methods besides identification. Witnesses for identification were offered to be brought to Lepel secretly. After the identification, another problem appeared, the women who identified her, even after 30 years, were terribly afraid of her. But the goal was achieved, Tonka the machine-gunner was again identified. After that, for a whole year, investigators collected evidence and kept her under a hood. Only after all sorts of checks was an order for arrest issued.

Arrest of Tonka machine-gunner

Officers detained her near the house. After the arrest, she was not even afraid, her gaze was calm and defiant. When arrested, she did not show any resistance, she calmly got into the car. After her arrest, Makarova-Ginzburg was taken to Bryansk, and since that time she has not seen her relatives and has never even asked to see them. The operatives were afraid that the defendant would commit suicide, but she was not even going to do it. Makarova-Ginzburg thought that according to the law they would give her three years, and then she would come out and start a new life. She was sure that everyone would be written off for the war. Soon a trial took place, the executioner woman was sentenced to death. Antonina did not want to die, she complained to a higher authority so that they would take into account that she was a woman. Moreover, 1979 was held under the auspices of a woman. Antonina could not imagine that she would be on the other side of the sight. All her petitions were rejected. Tonka was shot on August 11, 1979. After the war, she became the only executed woman in the entire Soviet Union.

History of life in captivity

The Germans and the male “traitors to the Russians” had no desire to mess around with such a bloody deed as the execution of unarmed prisoners. And Tonka, who wanted to survive by any means, was quite suitable for this. She was paid 30 German marks (Reichsmarks), “silver pieces” (a familiar figure?) for her “work”, for each execution, longing for a warm bed and food, spending a lot of time wandering through damp, cold forests, suffering from hunger, humiliation - she “sold” everything, one might say her soul, for minimal comfort.

The Lokot Republic existed for two years, from the 41st to the 43rd year. At the former stud farm, which, according to some information, is still working, there was a prison and a "den" of the occupiers. On the first floor there were cells with prisoners, made of horse boxes, with bars and walls up to the ceiling. 20-30 people were stuffed into one cell, naturally, they were only standing there, someone fainted, someone died. Women, children...

On the second floor lived "workers", in the evenings they walked in taverns and brothels. Tonka drowned her memories in alcohol every day, among men she had a bad reputation. Shootings were carried out every day. 25-30 people (one room full of people) - this is the minimum that Tonka "worked out" in a day. There were even three walkers a day ... that is, about a hundred people.

People were put in chains in front of the pit facing the pit, the place of execution was five hundred meters from the stud farm, it was pointless to run: everything was cordoned off by the Germans with machine guns, in any case, the prisoners were threatened with death. Haggard, desperate, ordinary people accepted their death. From the bullets wound up by Tonkaya machine gun "Maxim".

From the testimony of Antonina Ginzburg

“I just did my job, for which I was paid, just like other soldiers .. I had to shoot not only partisans, but also their families, women, teenagers, but everyone did it, because this is war. Although I remember the circumstances of one execution - before the execution, for some reason, one guy shouted to me: “We won’t see you again, goodbye, sister!”.

The victims for her were all the same person, she did not feel sorry for anyone, except for clothes:

“If I like things from the dead, then I take them off the dead, why should the good disappear: once I shot a teacher, so I liked her blouse, pink, silk, but it was painfully stained with blood, I was afraid that I wouldn’t wash it - I had to leave the grave. It's a pity".

Just a job… For Antonina, it was “just a job”

“Sometimes you shoot, you come closer, and someone else twitches .. then she shot again in the head so that the person would not suffer. It seemed to me that the war would write everything off, I was just doing my job, for which I was paid. It’s scary to kill only the first or second, only when the score goes to hundreds it becomes just hard work ..”.

The most difficult thing was to carry out the first execution, they gave Tonka alcohol to drink, after which it was easy.

Before Tonka the machine-gunner was exposed, 36 years had passed (since the day of her last execution). "She was the only woman in the USSR who was shot after the war by a court decision."

In addition to her, two more women were executed after: “The case of Antonina Makarova was the penultimate major case of traitors to the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War - and the only one in which a female punisher appeared. After Tonka, two more women were executed: Berta Borodkin in 1983 for speculating on an especially large scale and Tamara Ivanyutina in 1987 for poisoning 9 people.

Movies about Anka the machine gunner

About her, albeit a negative, but very popular heroine, several films and series have been shot. One of the latest and brightest is The Executioner of 2015.

The plot differs from reality, embellished with “gag”, for example, Tonka shot the victims in the eyes (it was this trail that helped to reach Antonina Malyshkin, whose prototype was Makarova), during the executions she got drunk and worked only in a mask, a child’s, or a mouse or some kind of animal. She was very afraid that she would be recognized, that she would remain in the eyes of the victims. The series is very interesting, exciting, well filmed and played with high quality, but it differs from the real story of Antonina.

In general, it should be noted, albeit in such a terrible way, but the exposure of Tonka brought her evil fame. There were even people who almost admired her.

“Well, such a strong-willed, determined woman ... the only woman who personally shot during the Great Patriotic War. The only one, there are no more ... ",- in these words of the investigator (from the film "Retribution. The Two Lives of Tonka the Machine-Gunner"), who led the case of Makarova, it is as if admiration for the criminal comes through.

Witness interviews

How did it happen that such a fierce criminal was able to escape after the capture of the “republic” by the Russians?

Free life and communication with German soldiers led to the fact that in the summer of 1943, before the liberation of Lokot by the Red Army, Makarova was sent to the hospital for treatment of venereal diseases.

“In the rear, Makarova started an affair with a German cook-corporal, who secretly took her in his convoy to Ukraine, and from there to Poland. There, the corporal was killed, and the Germans sent Makarov to a concentration camp in Königsberg. When the Red Army captured the city in 1945, Makarova posed as a Soviet nurse thanks to a stolen military ID, in which she indicated that she worked in the 422nd sanitary battalion from 1941 to 1944, and got a job as a nurse in a Soviet mobile hospital.

Here, in a local hospital, she met a soldier Viktor Ginzburg, who was wounded during the assault on the city. A week later they signed, Makarova took her husband's surname.

After she lived for 33 years in Lepel (Belarusian SSR), being in a rather happy marriage with her husband, she gave birth to two children. She worked at a garment factory, where she checked the quality of products, her photo hung on the honor roll. The family couple - both veterans of the war, Antonina was invited to schools, various institutions for stories about the heroic past, about how she defended her homeland. Ordinary life ... Only she had few friends, she seemed to repel people, many noted her piercing and some kind of wild look. In companies, she tried not to overdo it with alcohol, apparently she was afraid that in a state of intoxication she could say too much.

It is not without reason that the names of films and stories about Makarova are called “two lives of a female executioner”: she really seemed to live the lives of two different people.

In the photo Tonka in his youth

How was she found? Arrest

They searched for her for more than 30 years ... One of the clues was the surname “confused” in childhood: instead of Parfenova, Tonka was recorded as Makarov (and before that they were looking for Tonka exactly as Makarov, but it was necessary as Parfenov - recorded like that at birth), once Makarova’s brother (Parfenov ), being an employee of the Ministry of Defense, when traveling abroad in 1976, he filled out a questionnaire, where he indicated the names of all relatives.

So the investigators got on the trail of Makarova, in Lepel she was followed.

interrogation

However, she soon became suspicious of something, and the investigators had to leave her alone for almost a year, during which time they collected evidence. After a year, investigators arranged “veiled” identifications with three witnesses who recognized Makarova as Tonka the machine gunner: one witness met Makarova under the guise of a Social Security employee, the other watched from the sidelines.

In September 1978, Makarova was arrested:“A completely ordinary woman in a sand-colored raincoat with a shopping bag in her hands was walking down the street when a car stopped nearby, inconspicuous men in civilian clothes jumped out of it and said: “You urgently need to drive with us!” surrounded her, preventing her from escaping.

"Do you have any idea why you were brought here?" asked the Bryansk KGB investigator when she was brought in for her first interrogation. “Some mistake,” the woman chuckled in response.

“You are not Antonina Makarovna Ginzburg. You are Antonina Makarova, better known as Tonka the Muscovite or Tonka the machine gunner.

You are a punisher, you worked for the Germans, you carried out mass executions. There are still legends about your atrocities in the village of Lokot, near Bryansk. We have been looking for you for more than thirty years - now it is time to answer for what we have done. Your crimes have no statute of limitations."

“It means that it was not in vain that the last year my heart became anxious, as if I felt that you would appear,” the woman said. — How long ago was that. Like not with me at all. Almost all life has already passed. Well, write down…”

Even after the arrest, the husband of the “exemplary” wife tried in every possible way to get Antonina out of prison, the investigators did not tell him the true reason for Makarova’s arrest for a long time, fearing for his condition, when they nevertheless said that he turned gray overnight ... and left with his daughters to another city.

On August 11, 1979, in Bryansk, Antonina Makarova was shot, despite numerous petitions for clemency.

Opinions of psychiatrists about Tonka the machine gunner

The reasons for Tonka's cold-bloodedness and inhuman cruelty were justified by psychiatrists by his personality, M. Vinogradov (forensic expert): “She just wanted to kill, if she hadn’t been called to the front as a nurse and she hadn’t been on the side of the Germans - she would have been happy to kill the Germans. She didn't care who she killed.. This is the type of people. Antnonina was terribly afraid of dying, the reverse side of this fear was aggression; in ordinary life, many such people are not aware of their nature as born killers. For such people, murder is the norm of life, and there is no remorse, I’m not at all sure that she had the concept of the motherland as such as we do. ”

That was justified by a split personality due to a traumatic situation: “Psychiatrist Alexander Bukhanovsky, who was an expert in the Chikatilo case, once wrote a whole scientific work about Makarova in a collection of articles called “Scientific Notes of the Phoenix Center (Russian State Medical University)”, in which he expressed the version that in the case of Makarova there was a psycho- traumatic split personality, in which the person, however, remained sane.

Before falling into the occupation, Tonka experienced the horrors of the war and, escaping, became the marching wife of Nikolai Fedchuk. For several months they wandered through the forests, getting out of the German encirclement. In the series "The Executioner" Fedchuk raped Makarova (Malyshkina in the series). In January 1942, they reached the village where Fedchuk had a wife and children, and despite Antonina's pleas not to leave her, he refused to continue any relationship and left the girl to her fate.

There are even suggestions that Antonina could have gone crazy from the horrors of the war she experienced and everything that happened to Fedchuk.

All psychiatric examinations confirmed Antonina's sanity, which is often equated with the fact that Makarova was absolutely mentally healthy.

Firstly, sanity is not equal to mental health, and secondly, it is impossible to believe that the person who created everything that is attributed to Tonka the machine gunner is mentally normal. I don't believe in it. Such a tendency to cruelty is already a natural anomaly of the psyche, the desire to destroy, kill, love to destroy people, which was characteristic of Makarova, as M. Vinogradov says, can this be normal? A priori, a killer enjoying mass death, I note - aimless, for his own pleasure, is a maniac, a mentally and spiritually affected person.

Even sitting in the cell, Makarova, according to the stories of the investigators (and the “whisperer woman” who was placed in the cell with Tonka), did not understand what she had done wrong, they say, they disgraced her in her old age, how to work now, live when they are released ... but they would give her, as she thought, no more than three years probation ... why give more? She just worked hard...

She justified herself by doing just hard work. And indeed - after all, the war was, in fact, a bloody mess of ours and others, to give everything for the motherland without betraying it, and become a sliver in the fire of injustice, cruelty, either ours or others, or trying to save at least our own skin - a dilemma ambiguous. There is no need to say who would have done what and shout that none of us would have betrayed the motherland ... Perhaps there would have been many traitors to the motherland, there were already many of them. But to kill defenseless people, children, old people, both Germans and Russians, is already a crime not justified by any fear of the death of one's own skin. Words from Kanevsky's film: "You can understand, you can't forgive ...".

And yet, in the end, I want to say about some ambiguous points.

A woman who, for the sake of saving her own life, served as an executioner for the Nazis, successfully pretended to be a war heroine for three decades.

Incident with a surname

Antonina Makarova was born in 1921 in the Smolensk region, in the village of Malaya Volkovka, into a large peasant family of Makar Parfenov. She studied at a rural school, and it was there that an episode occurred that influenced her future life. When Tonya came to the first grade, because of her shyness, she could not give her last name - Parfenova. Classmates began to shout “Yes, she is Makarova!”, Meaning that Tony's father's name is Makar.

So, with the light hand of a teacher, at that time almost the only literate person in the village, Tonya Makarova appeared in the Parfyonov family.

The girl studied diligently, with diligence. She also had her own revolutionary heroine - Anka the machine gunner. This film image had a real prototype - the nurse of the Chapaev division, Maria Popova, who once in battle really had to replace a killed machine gunner.

After graduating from school, Antonina went to study in Moscow, where she was caught by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The girl went to the front as a volunteer.

Camping wife of the encircled

The 19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova suffered all the horrors of the infamous "Vyazemsky cauldron".

After the most difficult battles, only soldier Nikolai Fedchuk was surrounded by the young nurse Tonya. With him, she wandered through the local forests, just trying to survive. They did not look for partisans, they did not try to get through to their own - they fed on whatever they had to, sometimes they stole. The soldier did not stand on ceremony with Tonya, making her his "camping wife". Antonina did not resist - she just wanted to live.

In January 1942, they went to the village of Red Well, and then Fedchuk admitted that he was married and his family lived nearby. He left Tony alone.

Tonya was not driven out of the Red Well, but the locals were already full of worries. And the strange girl did not seek to go to the partisans, did not strive to break through to ours, but strove to make love with one of the men who remained in the village. Having set the locals against herself, Tonya was forced to leave.

Killer with pay

Tonya Makarova's wanderings ended near the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The infamous "Lokot Republic" - the administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators - operated here. In essence, they were the same German lackeys as in other places, only more clearly formalized.

A police patrol detained Tonya, but they did not suspect a partisan or underground worker of her. She liked the policemen, who took her to their place, gave her a drink, fed and raped her. However, the latter is very relative - the girl, who only wanted to survive, agreed to everything.

The role of a prostitute under the policemen did not last long for Tonya - one day, drunk, they took her out into the yard and put her behind a Maxim easel machine gun. People stood in front of the machine gun - men, women, old people, children. She was ordered to shoot. For Tony, who had completed not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not a big deal. True, the dead drunk woman did not really understand what she was doing. But, nevertheless, she coped with the task.

The next day, Makarova learned that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her bunk.

The Lokot Republic ruthlessly fought the enemies of the new order - partisans, underground workers, communists, other unreliable elements, as well as members of their families. The arrested were herded into a barn that served as a prison, and in the morning they were taken out to be shot.

The cell held 27 people, and all of them had to be eliminated in order to make room for new ones.

Neither the Germans, nor even the local policemen, wanted to take on this job. And here, Tonya, who appeared out of nowhere with her shooting abilities, came in very handy.

The girl did not go crazy, but on the contrary, she considered that her dream had come true. And let Anka shoot enemies, and she shoots women and children - the war will write everything off! But her life is finally getting better.

1500 lost lives

The daily routine of Antonina Makarova was as follows: in the morning, the execution of 27 people with a machine gun, finishing off the survivors with a pistol, cleaning weapons, schnapps and dancing in a German club in the evening, and at night, love with some pretty German or, at worst, with a policeman.

As a reward, she was allowed to take the belongings of the dead. So Tonya got a bunch of outfits, which, however, had to be repaired - traces of blood and bullet holes immediately interfered with wearing.

However, sometimes Tonya allowed a “marriage” - several children managed to survive, because because of their small stature, the bullets passed over their heads. The children were taken out together with the corpses by the locals, who buried the dead, and handed over to the partisans. Rumors about a female executioner, "Tonka the machine gunner", "Tonka the Muscovite" crawled around the district. Local partisans even announced a hunt for the executioner, but they could not get to her.

In total, about 1,500 people became victims of Antonina Makarova.

By the summer of 1943, Tony's life again took a sharp turn - the Red Army moved to the West, starting to liberate the Bryansk region. This did not bode well for the girl, but then she very opportunely fell ill with syphilis, and the Germans sent her to the rear so that she would not re-infect the "valiant" sons of Great Germany.

Honored veteran instead of a war criminal

In the German hospital, however, it also soon became uncomfortable - the Soviet troops were approaching so quickly that only the Germans had time to evacuate, and there was no longer any case for accomplices.

Realizing this, Tonya fled the hospital, again finding herself surrounded, but now Soviet. But survival skills were honed - she managed to get documents proving that all this time Makarova was a nurse in a Soviet hospital.

Antonina successfully managed to enter the service in a Soviet hospital, where at the beginning of 1945 a young soldier, a real war hero, fell in love with her.

The guy made an offer to Tonya, she agreed, and, having married, the young people after the end of the war left for the Belarusian city of Lepel, to her husband's homeland.

So the female executioner Antonina Makarova disappeared, and the honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg took her place.

She's been looking for thirty years

Soviet investigators learned about the monstrous deeds of "Tonka the machine gunner" immediately after the liberation of the Bryansk region. The remains of about one and a half thousand people were found in mass graves, but only two hundred were identified.

Witnesses were interrogated, checked, clarified - but they could not attack the trace of the female punisher.

Meanwhile, Antonina Ginzburg led the usual life of a Soviet person - she lived, worked, raised two daughters, even met with schoolchildren, talking about her heroic military past. Of course, without mentioning the deeds of "Tonka the machine gunner".

The KGB spent more than three decades searching for it, but found it almost by accident. A certain citizen Parfenov, going abroad, submitted questionnaires with information about relatives. There, among the solid Parfyonovs, for some reason, Antonina Makarova, by her husband Ginzburg, was listed as a sister.

Yes, how that mistake of the teacher helped Tonya, how many years thanks to it she remained out of reach of justice!

The KGB operatives worked like jewelry - it was impossible to accuse an innocent person of such atrocities. Antonina Ginzburg was checked from all sides, witnesses were secretly brought to Lepel, even a former policeman-lover. And only after they all confirmed that Antonina Ginzburg was “Tonka the machine gunner”, she was arrested.

She did not deny, she talked about everything calmly, said that she had no nightmares. She did not want to communicate with her daughters or her husband. And the husband, a front-line soldier, ran around the authorities, threatened Brezhnev with a complaint, even at the UN - he demanded the release of his wife. Exactly until the investigators decided to tell him what his beloved Tonya was accused of.

After that, the dashing, brave veteran turned gray and aged overnight. The family disowned Antonina Ginzburg and left Lepel. What these people had to endure, you would not wish on the enemy.

Retribution

Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was tried in Bryansk in the autumn of 1978. This was the last major trial of traitors in the USSR and the only trial of a female punisher.

Antonina herself was convinced that, due to the prescription of years, the punishment could not be too severe, she even believed that she would receive a suspended sentence. She only regretted that, because of the shame, she again had to move and change jobs. Even the investigators, knowing about the post-war exemplary biography of Antonina Ginzburg, believed that the court would show leniency. Moreover, 1979 was declared the Year of the Woman in the USSR.

However, on November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg to capital punishment - execution.

At the trial, her guilt was documented in the murder of 168 people from those whose identities could be established. More than 1,300 remained unknown victims of Tonka the Machine Gunner. There are crimes that cannot be forgiven.

At six in the morning on August 11, 1979, after all requests for clemency were rejected, the sentence against Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was carried out.

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet authorities launched punitive operations and the search for criminal collaborators. The country is shaking from public executions, one of the most famous was the execution at the Leningrad cinema "Giant". These processes are filmed and shown in newsreels. A real hunt and investigation begins on traitors. One of these criminals, who for a long time could not be caught and convicted of crimes, turned out to be the only woman - the executioner Tonka the machine gunner.

Lokot Republic

The elbow of the Bryansk region was captured by the Nazis. On its basis, the Reichsführer SS Himmler ordered the creation of a republic under the control of the local population. Such an organization was supposed to show the locals, without the communists. Autonomous became a place where peasants were allowed to work on their own land. But not all residents supported the new order, some went to the forests to continue which was quite active in the Bryansk region.

Bronislav Kaminsky, a former technologist at a local distillery, became the new burgomaster of the republic. The German generals gave him the highest confidence and allowed him to build a new future.

Private trade was allowed in the republic, and only a small tax was collected in favor of the new authorities. Against this background, constant partisan battles took place, as a result of which the new leadership captured partisans and other suspicious ones. The mass destruction of dissenters was in the order of things and happened regularly.

Tonya Makarova could well have been among those executed, but she decided to survive at any cost, which turned out to be too high. Kaminsky personally invited her to do the work of the executioner of the new regime. The nineteen-year-old girl agreed. She could go into the forests to the partisans, but she began to serve the new authorities. She jumped at the opportunity to save her life.

She was assigned to carry out death sentences and given a machine gun, and before that she took an oath of allegiance to Germany.

Executioner woman

The local population had no problems with clothing or food. The Germans uninterruptedly supplied the region with essential goods.

Tonya was given a room at a local stud farm and was given a salary of 30 marks. After long wanderings through the forests, after the Vyazemsky boiler, it seemed to the girl that Kaminsky's proposal was not the worst option. By those standards, she lived in luxury. She had absolutely everything. But when it came to executions, there was no turning back.

And when Tonya already believed that luck smiled at her, a machine gun was placed between her and the prisoners. Even though she was drunk, she remembered that day well. No one was going to pardon the doomed, and Tonya Makarova forgot all her doubts.

At each execution, she shot about 30 prisoners with a Maxim machine gun. That is how much was placed in the stall of the former stud farm of Mikhail Romanov. In two years, according to official figures, the girl killed about 1,500 thousand prisoners. This category included partisans, Jews and persons suspected of having links with partisans and their families.

New life

A wild life and prostitution in an entertainment establishment led to a venereal disease. And Antonina was sent to Germany for treatment. But she managed to escape from the hospital, having made new documents for herself, she got a job in a military hospital. There she met her future husband. They became a Belarusian soldier who was in the hospital after being wounded - Viktor Ginzburg. The biography of his future wife was not known to him.

A week later, the couple signed, the girl took her husband's surname, which helped her get even more lost and hide from justice.

During her work in the hospital, she earned a good reputation as a front-line soldier, and Viktor Ginzburg, Makarova's husband, could not believe that his beloved wife was involved in such crimes.

A family

Viktor Ginzburg, whose biography is practically unknown, was a native of a small Belarusian town, it was here that the family began a new life.

After the end of the war, the family went to Lepel, where Antonina got a job at a garment factory. The woman's family - Viktor Ginzburg, Makarova's husband, their children - have lived in this city for 30 years and have established themselves as an exemplary family. She was in good standing with the factory management and never aroused any suspicion. From the memoirs of contemporaries, everyone characterized the Ginzburg family as exemplary.

Arrest

The state security authorities opened a criminal case against Antonina Makarova in absentia, but they could not get on her trail. The case was transferred to the archive several times, but they did not close it, she committed too terrible crimes. Neither Viktor Ginzburg nor her inner circle even suspected the woman's involvement in the brutal murders.

The investigators did not confess to the family why they arrested the woman, so Viktor Ginzburg, the husband of Tonka the machine-gunner, a war and labor veteran, threatened to complain to the UN after the unexpected arrest of his wife. Despite the fact that traces were lost, surviving witnesses pointed to the perpetrator without a doubt.

Viktor Ginzburg wrote complaints to various organizations, assuring him that he loved his wife very much and was ready to forgive her for all her crimes. But I didn't know how serious it was.

When Viktor Ginzburg, Makarova's husband, learned the terrible truth, the man turned gray overnight.

Surname

There are some ambiguities in the biography of Antonina Makarova. She was approximately born in the early 1920s in Moscow. Her mother was a native of Sychevsky. After graduating from the seventh grade, Antonina lived in Moscow with her aunt.

As for her surname, the large family bore the surname Panfilovs, patronymic - Makarovna / Makarovich. But at school, the girl was recorded by Makarova, either by accident, or because of inattention. This surname passed into the girl's passport.

Finally, Antonina was sentenced to death, and Viktor Ginzbrug, Makarova's husband, left the city with his two daughters in an unknown direction. Their fate is still unknown.

To save her own life, she began to serve as an executioner for the German occupiers. For one execution, she received real money. She shot nearly 1,500 people. And all this - for a year and a half. During the war, she was nicknamed Thin Machine Gunner. For the next three decades, she was an exemplary Soviet woman. She is Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg, Tonka the machine gunner, a biography whose real story will be told in the article.

Makarova's ideal was Anka the machine gunner

Antonina Makarova was born in 1920 in a village in the Smolensk province. However, according to some other sources, she was born in the capital in 1923 as well.

In the metric, her last name was indicated as Parfenova. The fact is that when she began to study at school, by mistake, the teacher mixed up not only her middle name, but also her last name. In the class journal, she wrote it down as Makarova. It is because of this that in all subsequent official documents Tonya was listed under such a surname. This ridiculous accident subsequently helped her to escape justice for three decades.

Tonka the machine-gunner, whose biography, whose family did not differ in anything remarkable, did not have a happy childhood. The family of the future punisher lived rather poorly. Her mother had to work hard to raise the children. Helped in this regard, his small garden. But they also needed constant practice. Accordingly, it was very difficult to combine household chores with raising a daughter. She didn't have time for everything. And young Tonya in her dreams, like any girl, hoped that her mother would buy her a beautiful dress, new shoes with the aim of appearing on the local dance floor in this attire ...

In addition to such hobbies, she also had her own ideal - Anka the machine gunner. As you know, this movie character also had a prototype. We are talking about Maria Popova. During the civil war, in one of the battles, she replaced the deceased machine gunner. Ahead of events, let's say one thing: inspired by the image of M. Popova, Antonina also received a machine gun. Only now the character and prototype of the book and film "Chapaev" fought with the enemies, and Makarova shot the condemned ...

At school, young Tonya studied very diligently. True, she did not show much zeal for the exact sciences. She preferred subjects such as geography and history.

For eight years, Tonka the machine gunner, whose biography, whose childhood was not rosy, studied at a village school. In high school, she already studied at a Moscow school. The whole family moved there.

Having received a certificate of maturity, she entered the school, then - to the technical school. She planned to become a doctor.

"Vyazemsky cauldron" and retreat

When the war began, she went to the front, becoming a medical instructor. The German army then advanced on the Soviet capital.

As a result, Makarova with her units was completely surrounded, in the so-called. "Vyazemsky cauldron". At some point, while retreating, she fell into the hands of the Germans. After a while, she managed to escape. Moreover, she escaped not alone, but together with the soldier Nikolai Fedchuk.

Together they wandered through the forests, sometimes stealing to feed themselves. At the same time, they did not look for an opportunity to find partisans or break through to units of the Red Army.

In the process of this wandering, Fedchuk ceased to stand on ceremony with the fairer sex and made her his "camping wife." True, the involuntary "wife", in fact, did not really resist.

At the beginning of 1942, the encirclement ended up in the village where Fedchuk lived before the war. It was there that he confessed to Tonya that he was married and his family lived nearby. In a word, Makarova was left completely alone.

For several days, Antonina begged home. At first, the villagers did not expel her, but since they had enough of their own worries without her, they did not dare to keep the unknown woman for a long time. She had tried to have an affair with one of the villagers. But in the end, she was able to turn almost all local residents against herself. She had to leave the village.

They say that Fedchuk's betrayal and the lack of physical and moral strength at that time finished her off. She is said to have actually gone mad. But that was only temporary. She wanted to survive. And at any cost.

Executioner's rate

Antonina's wanderings ended in the vicinity of the Bryansk village of Lokot. Recall that during the war, the so-called. The Lokot Republic, which was founded by Russian collaborators, that is, henchmen of the Nazis.

The unfortunate nurse was detained by the police, who liked her. They took me in, gave me food, offered me alcohol and raped me. True, the fact of this violence was very controversial. For at that moment, Tonya agreed to absolutely everything.

Thus, for some time the former medical instructor worked for the police as a prostitute.

Once, very drunk, they took her out into the street and gave her a Maxim machine gun - exactly the same as that of Anka the machine gunner.

In front of her were people who were about to be executed. Tonya was given the order to shoot. The massacre was not difficult for her. And she felt no remorse. Of course, Makarova had a choice. She could be among those shot. She could also become an executioner, which happened, in fact. She chose the second option, hoping that later the war would write everything off anyway. Well, in the end, her old dream came true in some way - she became a machine gunner, like her favorite character. Her life also began to improve.

For the next day, her superiors decided that for her to work as a prostitute was an unsuitable occupation. She does a much better job. In a word, she was offered to participate in executions on an ongoing basis. According to Makarova herself, the invaders did not want to get their hands dirty. They believed that it would be more convenient if the condemned were shot by a Soviet woman.

As a result, when she agreed to the German proposal, she was given a machine gun for personal storage. From now on, she was an official - an executioner. Management offered her a salary of thirty marks. Also, after many months, she was finally given a bed. And Tonka the machine-gunner lived (biography, photo - in the article) in a separate room, which is at a local factory.

"To reduce in a nettle"

Antonina's daily routine as an executioner was too monotonous. She woke up, had breakfast, and then prepared her machine gun for reprisal. Meanwhile, the condemned were in the barn. In fact, it served as a kind of prison. This "cell" accommodated exactly twenty-seven people. According to eyewitnesses, there was a constant terrible moan in the dungeon. The prisoners were stuffed into a room that it was not even possible to sit down. And since the prison was never empty, the condemned were quickly dealt with. And immediately new unfortunates arrived in this death row.

When Antonina's machine gun was already ready for execution, the condemned were taken to the execution pit and the sentence itself was executed. Tonka the machine-gunner finished off the survivors with a pistol in the head. By the way, to lead to execution in Makarova's jargon is "to reduce into nettles."

According to her testimony, she was only conscientiously doing her job. Moreover, for this "work", as mentioned above, she received real German money.

Sometimes she executed not only Soviet partisans, but also members of their families. True, she did not want to remember this at all and tried to forget about those whom she shot. And the doomed themselves did not know her. Therefore, she never felt remorse. However, she remembered the circumstances of one massacre to the last. An unknown young guy who was sentenced to death managed to shout to her: "See you now! Farewell, sister!"

Sometimes Antonina Makarova (Tonka the machine-gunner, whose biography is told in the article) also allowed “marriage” in her work. So, several children were able to survive in this meat grinder. There was only one reason: due to their small stature, the bullets passed over their heads ...

The villagers who buried the executed were able to take out the unfortunate teenagers and hand them over to the Soviet partisans.

The rumor about the bloody punisher Tonka the machine-gunner spread throughout the territory of the Bryansk region. The partisans even decided to declare a hunt for her. Unfortunately, these searches seemed in vain.

When Tonya was finishing her massacre, she was cleaning her favorite machine gun. In the evenings, she came to a German club, danced, drank with representatives of the Aryan nation, after which she relaxed in the arms of officers and policemen.

Also, often at night, Tonka the machine-gunner, whose biography and life story are described in many historical documents, came to the death row and carefully examined the condemned. Either she mentally prepared for the morning execution, or she looked after the things of the doomed in advance. In any case, as an encouragement, she was given the opportunity to take the clothes of the dead. Over time, she had a huge number of outfits.

Although in her work there were serious disappointments. Sometimes she complained that on the clothes of the executed there were not only large blood stains, but also holes from bullets ...

Executioner Metamorphoses

In the summer of 1943, Makarova's life took another turn. Soviet troops began to liberate the Bryansk region. Accordingly, in the light of the latest reports from the front, this did not bode well for her. But that same summer, she was sent to the rear hospital to be treated for venereal diseases. In a word, she managed to save herself from retribution at that time. We note right away that the Red Army and the partisans liberated Lokot in early September.

In the hospital walls of Makarova it was more than uncomfortable. After all, the Soviet troops were approaching very quickly. The Nazis began the evacuation, but they transported only the Aryans.

Meanwhile, in the rear, Antonina managed to start another love affair. Beloved became a German chef. He secretly managed to take her to Ukraine, and then to Poland.

But here she was very unlucky. Beloved was killed, and the Nazis sent her to the death camp in Koenigsberg.

In 1945, the Red Army captured this city as well. Then Makarova used a stolen Soviet military ID. In this document it was written that from 1941 to 1944 she served in one of the sanitary battalions. Thus, Tonka managed to impersonate a Russian nurse, and she began to work in a mobile hospital.

In the same period, the executioner Tonka the machine-gunner, whose biography makes even the most cold-blooded people horrified, met one of the wounded soldiers. His name was Viktor Ginzburg. Just one week later, the lovers signed. Of course, the bride decided to take the name of her groom. And when the war was finally over, the young couple went to the city of Lepel, Ginzburg's homeland.

So, Antonina Makarova, Tonka the machine-gunner, whose biography aroused the contempt of everyone and whom the partisans had been hunting for a long time, disappeared. A well-deserved veteran, front-line soldier Antonina Ginzburg appeared. Only three decades later, Tonka the machine-gunner, her biography and victims in wartime, unexpectedly surfaced ...

Double life

When Soviet troops liberated not only Bryansk, but also Lokot, investigators discovered the remains of 1,500 victims of executions. Unfortunately, the investigation was able to identify only 200 executed. In addition, witnesses were called for questioning. The information is constantly updated and rechecked. But Tonka the machine-gunner sank into the water. There was no way they could follow her trail.

And Tonka herself, the machine gunner, whose biography and life after the war were getting better, became an ordinary, simple Soviet woman. She was engaged in raising her two daughters, she was invited to a meeting with schoolchildren, where she talked about her heroic past. She worked. She managed to find a job at the Lepel garment factory. Antonina was responsible for the quality of products at the enterprise.

By and large, she was considered not only a very responsible, but also a conscientious worker. Her photograph was repeatedly posted on the honor roll.

According to her former colleagues, Antonina always seemed withdrawn. She didn't talk much during the conversation. And when corporate holidays happened at the enterprise, she almost did not drink alcohol (apparently, so as not to let it slip).

In general, the Ginsburgs were respected people. And since they were front-line soldiers, they received all the benefits that were due to veterans. And, of course, neither the spouse, nor the familiar families, nor the neighbors were completely aware that the honored person Antonina Ginzburg was the infamous Tonka the machine gunner ...

Unexpected turn

Only in 1976 did the case of the Lokot punisher move forward. And the following happened. On one of the squares in Bryansk, an unknown man suddenly attacked a certain Nikolai Ivanin with his fists. The fact is that he was able to recognize the head of the German prison Lokot during the war. Ivanin, who had been hiding all this time, like Antonina, did not open his mouth and gave his testimony to the investigation. At the same time, he also mentioned Tonka the machine-gunner (he had a short love affair with her). Of course, the suspect also gave her last name to the investigators.

It was this clue that made it possible to develop a complete list of citizens of the USSR who bear that name. Alas, law enforcement officers did not find the Makarova they needed on this list. They did not yet know that there were representatives of the weaker sex who were registered under this name at birth. Well, Tonka the machine gunner, as mentioned above, was originally recorded as Parfenova.

Nevertheless, at first the investigators mistakenly managed to get on the trail of another Makarova, who lived in the city of Serpukhov. Ivanin had to agree to conduct an identification in this city. He was settled in one of the hotels, and the next day in his room he took his own life. The reasons for this suicide are still unclear.

After these events, the investigators began to look for all the surviving witnesses who can remember Makarov's face. However, they did not recognize her either.

But the search continued. We found the real Antonina almost by accident.

A certain Soviet citizen Parfenov was going abroad. In order to obtain permission to leave, he sent the appropriate questionnaire, which contained information about his relatives. This questionnaire also included Parfenov's sister, Antonina Makarova. Then it turned out about the mistake of the school teacher young Tonka ...

Jewelry work of operatives

The investigators had to work with jewelry to find the Lokot executioner. They could not blame such atrocities on an innocent person. Therefore, the honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg began to be carefully checked. Secretly, operatives brought witnesses to Lepel.

So, in 1978, law enforcement officers conducted an experiment. One of the direct witnesses arrived in the city. At the same time, Makarova, under a fictitious pretext, was asked to go outside. And an eyewitness to the crimes watched Antonina from the window. She confirmed that the garment factory employee was Tonka the machine-gunner. However, this fact was still not enough for the arrest.

Then the investigation decided to conduct another experiment. Two more witnesses arrived in Lepel. One woman pretended to be a social worker. Makarova was called in to allegedly recalculate her pension. Tonka the machine-gunner was immediately recognized. Another eyewitness was on the street next to the building. She also identified Antonina. And only after that they decided to detain her anyway. On this day, Makarova-Ginzburg went to the head of the personnel department. The operatives stopped her and produced an arrest warrant. According to investigators, when she was arrested, she immediately understood everything and behaved absolutely calmly.

Renunciation

When Makarova was in the cell, she was transferred to Bryansk. At first, law enforcement officers were very afraid that the defendant would commit suicide. To prevent a possible suicide, a woman, a "whisperer", was planted next to her. According to her, Makarova was not going to take her own life at all. She was quite certain that because of her retirement age, the court would give her a minimum sentence of three years. At the same time, she herself volunteered for interrogation to the investigator. She demonstrated enviable composure when answering direct questions from Tonka the machine gunner. Biography (documentary filmed in 2010) is told in the film “Retribution. Two lives of Tonka the machine-gunner. The presenter said that Makarova believed that there was simply nothing to punish her for. And, accordingly, all the unfortunate events that occurred were attributed exclusively to the war by Tonka the machine gunner.

The biography (the film tells details about this woman) said that when she was brought to Lokot, she also behaved very calmly. She herself admitted that during the war her name was Tonka-machine-gunner. Then the investigators took her to the execution ditch, near which she carried out the sentences. And the inhabitants of Lokot, seeing and recognizing her, spat after her.

The investigators asked her about whether she had nightmares after the mass executions. Makarova said that this had never happened. By the way, a psychic examination confirmed that Tonka the machine-gunner is absolutely sane.

The investigators suggested that she talk to her husband and children. She refused. And even the news decided not to pass.

In the meantime, the unfortunate husband of Makarova was running around all the instances. He was ready to write a complaint to Brezhnev himself and to the UN. He demanded the immediate release of his beloved wife and mother of his children. Investigators were forced to report what his wife is accused of. They say that the brave veteran, having learned the truth, turned gray overnight. The whole family renounced Antonina and left Lepel forever.

Inevitable retribution

In the fall of 1978, the trial of Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg began in Bryansk, which turned out to be not only the last major trial in the Soviet Union over traitors to the Motherland, but also the only one when the punisher was tried.

The guilt of Tonka the machine-gunner in the execution of 168 people was documented. In addition, almost 1,300 civilians remained unknown victims of Makarova.

Tonka the machine gunner herself, a biography whose photo appeared in many investigative protocols, was sure that the punishment a priori could not be strict due to the prescription of years. She only worried that because of the shame she would have to move to another city and, accordingly, look for a new job. To be honest, the investigators themselves believed that the court would show leniency towards her. Moreover, her post-war biography turned out to be exemplary.

But the court decided to pass a harsh sentence. November 20, 1978 Tonka the machine gunner was sentenced to death. She listened to the words of Judge Makarova absolutely calmly, but at the same time she did not understand why this measure was so cruel. Then she still explained: “After all, there was a war. Life has turned out that way. And now I have sore eyes. I need an operation. Will they not pardon?"

After the trial, Tonka the machine-gunner, a biography whose history does not cause any regret, scribbled appeals. She hoped for forgiveness, because the upcoming 1979 was supposed to be the Year of the Woman.

Alas, the court decided to reject these petitions. And on August 11, 1979, in the morning, at 6.00, the sentence was carried out ... This is how Tonka the machine-gunner lived. A biography, a documentary should be of interest to everyone who studies history. But the fate of this woman will not cause regret in anyone.

On August 11, 1979, the sentence was carried out on the executioner of the Lokotsky self-government, Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg, nicknamed “Tonka the machine gunner”, the only woman in the world who killed 1,500 people.

During the Great Patriotic War, the territories of the Bryansk, Kursk and Orel regions were declared by the Nazis to be a new administrative-territorial entity - the Lokotsky District, with full power from the local governments, which were fascist accomplices.

Makarova, being a nurse in 1941, was surrounded and after a 3-month wandering through the Bryansk forests ended up in the Lokotsky district.

A 20-year-old girl became an executioner, every morning from a machine gun polished by a master, shooting people - partisans, sympathizers, their families (children, teenagers, women, old people!). After the execution, Tonya Makarova finished off the wounded and collected women's things she liked. And in the evening, having washed off the blood stains, dressed up, she went to the officers' club to find herself another friend for the night.

Makarova is the only female punisher shot in the USSR.

We bring to your attention the main facts of the terrible life of "Tonka the machine gunner", which are difficult to realize and impossible to forget.

For the first time Makarov was killed after drinking moonshine. She was caught on the street, ragged, dirty and homeless by local police. They warmed them up, gave them a drink, and, handing a machine gun in their hands, took them out into the yard. Completely drunk, Tonya did not really understand what was happening and did not resist. But when I saw 30 marks in my hand (good money), I was delighted and agreed to cooperate. Makarova was given a bed at the stud farm and told to go “to work” in the morning.

Tonya to "work" I quickly got used to it: “I did not know those whom I shoot. They didn't know me. Therefore, I was not ashamed in front of them. Sometimes you shoot, you come closer, and someone else twitches. Then again she shot in the head so that the person would not suffer. Sometimes a few prisoners had a piece of plywood hung on their chests with the inscription "Partisan". Some people sang something before they died. After the executions, I cleaned the machine gun in the guardroom or in the yard. There were plenty of cartridges ... "; “It seemed to me that the war would write everything off. I was just doing my job for which I was paid. It was necessary to shoot not only partisans, but also members of their families, women, teenagers. I tried not to think about it…”

At night Makarov she loved to walk around the former stable, converted by the police into a prison - after brutal interrogations, those sentenced to death were taken there and the girl Tonya spent hours peering into the faces of the people whom she was to take their lives in the morning (of course, nothing personal!).

Retribution at once after the war, Makarova happily escaped - at the moment when the Soviet troops were advancing, she discovered a venereal disease and the Germans ordered Tonya to be sent to their distant rear - to be treated (as a valuable shot?). When the Red Army entered Lokot, only a huge mass grave of 1,500 people remained from the “Tonka the Machine Gunner” (passport data was established for 200 dead - the death of these people formed the basis of the absentee charge of the punisher Antonina Makarova, born in 1921, presumably a resident of Moscow - nothing more was known about the executioner).

thirty plus years, the KGB officers were looking for the killer. All Antonina Makarovs born in the Soviet Union in 1921 were checked (there were 250 of them). But "Tonka the machine-gunner disappeared."

In 1976 a Moscow official by the name of Parfenov drew up documents for traveling abroad. Filling out the questionnaire, he listed the passport details of his brothers and sisters - 5 people. All were Parfenovs and only one - Antonina Makarovna Makarova, since 1945 Ginzburg (by her husband), living in Belarus, in the city of Lepel.

Parfenov's sister- They became interested in Antonina Ginzburg and monitored her for a year, fearing in vain to slander ... a veteran of the Second World War! Receiving all the benefits due, regularly speaking at the invitation of schools and labor collectives, an exemplary wife and mother of two children! I had to take witnesses to Lepel for secret identification (including some of Tonka's fellow policemen serving their sentences and lovers).

When Makarov-Gunzburg arrested, she told how she fled from a German hospital, realizing that the war was over - the Nazis were leaving, married a front-line soldier, straightened out veteran's documents and hid in a small, provincial Lepel. Tonka slept well, nothing tormented her: “What nonsense, that then remorse is tormented. That those you kill come at night in nightmares. I still haven't dreamed of one."

shot 55-year-old Makarova-Ginzburg early in the morning, rejecting all petitions for clemency. What came as a complete surprise to her (!), She complained to the prison guards more than once: “They disgraced me in my old age, now after the verdict I will have to leave Lepel, otherwise every fool will poke a finger at me. I think they will give me three years probation. For what more? Then you need to somehow re-arrange life. And how much is your salary in the pre-trial detention center, girls? Maybe I can get a job with you - the work is familiar ... "!