Zina Portnova: Teenage Nazi Killer
- Feb 24
- 5 min read
Born: 20 February 1926
Died: 15 January 1944
Country: Russia / Belarus / USSR
Culture or Era: World War II
Born in Leningrad, Russia (now called St. Petersburg), Zinaida "Zina" Portnova had just finished seventh grade and was spending the summer on her grandmother's cattle farm in Belarus (then part of Russia's USSR) when she heard shouts from the village and a low, rumbling noise. The ground shook as she looked out from her grandmother’s house, and watched Germany tanks rolled through their village, with Nazi soldiers at the helm. Germany, which had said they were an ally, had officially betrayed them and invaded Russia on the order of Hitler.
The tanks didn’t just roll through town. Fifteen-year-old Zina watched in horror as soldiers stopped in front of her house and started taking the cattle. The soldiers were there to steal food to feed the Germany army Her grandmother stormed out of the house, yelling at the soldiers to leave, and to Zina’s horror the soldiers struck her grandmother across the face, and she fell to the ground. From that day on, Zina swore to get revenge on the Nazis.
Zina’s grandmother tried to send her back to Leningrad, but the Nazis had already blocked all of the tracks. Zina had no choice but to stay in Belarus. She kept her ear to the ground and started to learn about a secret resistance movement. The next year, sixteen-year-old Zina joined the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. The group was better known as the Young Avengers. The group was headed by another young female revolutionary, 18-year-old Yefrosinya Zenkova.
Zina started with less dangerous activities, secretly distributing pamphlets to get more recruits. After a few months, Zina started to get assigned to missions. With a troupe of fellow resistance fighters, Zina collected and stashed weapons in secret locations, set fire to wagons and cars, and kept notes on the movements of German soldiers which she reported back to her leaders.
At the resistance base, she learned how to use a gun and was trained in explosives. When she proved capable with both, she was assigned more dangerous mission assignments. To sabotage Nazi resources, Zina rigged up explosives at water pumps, power plants, and factories, and blew them up. She had to be extremely careful and remember all of her training in these high-pressure situations, since any mistake would probably kill herself and her comrades. After these successes, she proved herself a valuable fighter, and was tasked with even more demanding missions.
The next year, Zina infiltrated an important Nazi headquarters. She pretended to be in need of work, and was taken on as a kitchen maid. The Nazis were paranoid about being poisoned, and new staff were not allowed to handle any of the food. Zina bided her time, mopping floors and scrubbing dishes for months, until the exact right opportunity came. She noticed a pot of soup left unattended on the stove. Looking around, she fished into her pockets and grabbed the poison she had been keeping at hand for weeks. Making sure she hid what she was doing, quick as a flash she poisoned the soup, stuffed the poison back into her pockets, and returned to her duties. When dinner was served, all Zina had to do was wait.
Soon enough, there was a massive commotion upstairs as the Nazi commanders started to fall sick one after another, vomiting and collapsing as their dinner poisoned their insides. Of course, they were immediately suspicious of the kitchen staff. One by one they called them up for an interrogation. When it was Zina’s turn, she stood in front of the commanders as they questioned and threatened her. She insisted that she was innocent, just a slight kitchen girl who scrubbed dishes and floors. They were still suspicious. The commanders placed a bowl of the poisoned soup in front of her, and told her that if she did not admit her guilt, they would force her to eat it.
Even faced with possible death, Zina kept her cool. She refused to show these Nazis that she was scared. Instead, she calmly took the spoon and ate a spoonful of soup. Then another. The effects of the poison started to make her sick, but she had expected the pain and fought through it. She took another spoonful of soup, until finally the soldiers dismissed her. She had proved her point.
Zina immediately went home and started vomiting. She was violently ill, but thankfully her grandmother knew some folk remedies to ease the pain, and Zina survived. But she was too ill to return to work. When she didn't show up to the kitchens the next morning, the Germans became suspicious and put her name on their wanted list. The Young Avengers, for both her bravery and safety's sake, promoted and relocated Zina. She resumed the usual sabatoge tactics until one of the resistance’s troupes was betrayed by an insider. Zina was tasked with finding out what happened and gathering any remaining members. She took the mission seriously, and started her detective work.
She tried to get in touch with any escapees from the compromised troupe, and kept hitting dead ends. But she was determined. As she was sneaking around the village trying to find more information, her way was blocked by a soldier patrolling the street. He noticed her, and she raised her gun, but her pistol misfired. The soldier confiscated her gun, arrested her and brought her into questioning.
In the interrogation room, she was brought before a Nazi officer. He sat across from her at a table and started questioning her: Who was she? Why would she fire at the officer? Was she with the resistance? Zina, again, refused to admit anything. The officer became frustrated with her and pulled out a pistol, throwing it onto the table and threatening her about just how this would end if she didn’t cooperate. But that was the officer’s fatal mistake. Zina saw her chance, swiping up the pistol and in a flash, aimed it at him and let off two bullets. Both found their mark, and the officer fell to the floor, dead.
She whirled around to the door to escape just when the door burst in and two guards reached for their guns. She let off two more shots and they both went down. She took off into the hallway and managed to burst through the outer wall of the building and escape into the woods. But her daring escape had raised the alarm for all nearby soldiers, who were told to look for a young girl with dark hair, armed with a gun. Soldiers spread out in a search, and exhausted from trekking through the woods, and, finally out of bullets, she was caught. Now a known Nazi killer, there was no reason for her to be questioned again. Instead, she was jailed for a few weeks, where she was brutally tortured and interrogated for information. Just like every other time, Zina showed her courage and devotion to her country; she refused to give up any information. The Nazis continued the torture, and it became so extreme that Zina became blind. When it was clear they would not be getting anything out of the teenage girl, the Nazis ordered her to be executed. Zina was killed by Nazi soldiers in January of 1944, just three weeks before her eighteenth birthday.
Legacy
Zina’s example of courage, loyalty, and devotion was hailed as an example of true patriotism. She was posthumously awarded the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union”, the youngest ever female awardee of the USSR’s highest honor. Even decades after her death, Zina is honored in plaques, statues, and monuments throughout Russia and is hailed as a national hero.
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