Popova Galina Filippovna (October 25, 1924 – October 17, 2009), was born in the village Staroaleksandrovka Buzuluk district of the Orenburg region, in a peasant family.
In 1943 Popova Galina voluntarily joined the ranks of the Red Army. The military commissariat sent her to the nurses’ courses in the city of Ufa. In July 1943, during the study period, the nurse was sent to the acting army for an internship.
In December 1943, in the battles for the city of Radomyshl (Zhytomyr region), Galina Popova and a group of soldiers were captured, but in the evening of the same day she managed to escape from Nazi captivity. Thanks to the help of local residents, joined the partisan detachment, took part in combat operations, and after the liberation of the city again returned to the ranks of the Red Army.
In the summer of 1944, Galina Popova was sent to the 248th Infantry Regiment for the position of medical officer of the rifle company. For two weeks of fighting, Galina carried 18 wounded soldiers from the front line, for which she was awarded the medal “For Courage”. July 20, 1944 in the Battle of Kovel in one of the raids for the wounded Popova Galina was seriously injured by a bursting bullet in the leg.
She returned to service on December 12, 1944, and was sent to serve in the Polish Army, in the 38th Artillery Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division of the 2nd Polish Army in the position of medical assistant of the artillery battalion.
The end of the war Galina Popova met May 11, 1945 in Czechoslovakia, along with her husband Alexei Nikolaevich Dobrynin, a Soviet officer who also served in the Polish Army.
For combat feats Galina Filippovna Popova (in Dobrynina’s marriage) was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the medal “For Courage”, two medals of the Polish People’s Republic – “For Odru, Nissa, Baltic” and “Victory and Freedom”, as well as the sign of Grunwald .
Source of Popova Galina: Personal archive A. Dobrynin.
Location: station Alkino, Ufa, USSR
Date: 1943