Evdokia Andreevna Nikulina is a legendary pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union (1944), graduate of the Rostov Pedagogical Institute (1954).
She was born in the year of the October Revolution – November 8, 1917 in the village of Parfenovo (now Spas-Demensky District, Kaluga Region) into a peasant family. She graduated from an aviation technical school and an aviation school in the city of Balashov. She worked as a pilot in the aviation detachment of the Civil Air Fleet of the city of Smolensk, delivering airmail, urgent medical flights, and exterminating malaria mosquitoes.
At that time, no one knew that during the war the Nazi invaders would call Nikulina and her front-line friends “night witches” with horror, and their feat would be forever inscribed in the history of our Motherland.
Her frontline journey began in June 1941. The first days of the war, Evdokia Nikulina served at the headquarters of the Western Front, then was assigned to the city of Engels, where Marina Raskova formed the women’s aviation regiments of the Red Army Air Force. She served in the bomber aviation regiment throughout the war – until 1945. Flew on Po-2. She took part in the defense of the Caucasus and in the Crimean offensive operation, for which she received the second Order of the Red Banner.
The squadron commander of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (325th Night Bomber Aviation ision, 4th Air Army, 2nd Belorussian Front) Guard, Major Nikulina, had completed 600 combat missions by September 1944.
“Dina Nikulina is a professional pilot with excellent piloting technique. Her character is cheerful and cheerful. She flew fearlessly. And at amateur performance evenings she enthusiastically tap-danced until she was wounded in the leg. After that, we found out that she sings excellently,” fellow front-line soldiers recalled Evdokia Andreevna.
After the war, Guard Major Nikulina was in the reserve and then retired. In 1948 she graduated from the Rostov party school, and in 1954 from the Pedagogical Institute.
For the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command and demonstrated courage and heroism in battles with the Nazi invaders, Evdokia Andreevna Nikulina was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union! She was also awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, as well as medals.
In memory of the heroic Soviet military pilot, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where she spent her post-war life in Rostov-on-Don (Zhuravleva lane, 104), and an obelisk in the city of Spas-Demensk, Kaluga region (where Evdokia Andreevna was born). A Rostov-on-Don street in the Bolgarstroy microdistrict was named in honor of Evdokia Andreevna Nikulina.
We are proud and remember our heroes!
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