Kalinina Lyudmila

For military and labor heroism Lyudmila was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, two Orders of World War II degree, two Orders of Red Star, 23 medals, including "Service in Battle". In 2000, the President of Russia VV. Putin gave her yet another award - the Order of Merit.
Born Sept. 8, 1915 in Ufa in the Russian intellectual family. Father - Ivan G. Sukharev (1884 - 1962). Mother - Sukharev Kapitolina Mikhailovna (1892 - 1975). Spouse - Kalinin, Boris Pavlovich (1910 - 1991), a veteran of World War II, he served in armor, retired with the rank of colonel.

In 1927, Lyudmila Sukharev parents arrived in Moscow and continued his studies at school. After a seven-year period came to the automobile AMO, became a locksmith apprentice. Girl is able to quickly mastered a profession, came to the shop and started working as a mechanic to repair machines and automata. Worked fine, he deserves a 4-th digit. Simultaneously Ludmila studied at the evening rabfak. In 1932 she married a factory lathe operator Starshinova Ivana Fedotovich Chevalier of the Order of Lenin.

Work Department to succeed. Ludmila decided to continue his studies and to the surprise of parents and girlfriends (Luda was a girl of rare beauty and refined taste), entered the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization in the name. I. Stalin. She studied for five years in one group with Boris Kalinin, here at the military academy, they met, became friends, fell in love ...

In 1940, both released in the spring of the Academy. Ludmilla was appointed to the headquarters of MVO, Boris office were taken to a distant Transbaikalia. In the summer of Head of District Staff Military Engineer 3rd Rank Ludmila Starshinova made its inclusion in the group of specialists armored vehicles, which was to test a new floating tank T-40. Military engineer in the skirt sat at the controls of a new combat vehicle and took her along the roads and off-road. The tank was in the hands of Lyudmila was more than 3 thousand miles, crossed three major rivers.

And the new tank, and a driver brilliantly passed all tests. Ludmila received the first award: icon, "For the perfect driving a tank.

In June 1941, Lyudmila Boris vacation in Crimea. No sooner had a tan and nakupatsya in the sea - the war broke out. Telegram: "urgently come to the part" threw them into the car fast train, and in Moscow separated: Lyudmila sent to the Southern Front, Boris - with the Tank Corps on the Western Front.

. Engineer 3rd rank Ludmila Starshinova came to the commander of the armored and mechanized forces of the Front General Shtevneva, who instructed her to lead the department repair and evacuation of tanks
. Military Engineer from the front had to go to Moscow - on official business, with the objective to obtain and bring to the Southern front parts for tanks and new military equipment. Lyudmila successfully coped with it, brought to the front plane parts, and then approached the two-tier new tanks. But at the same time brought with them Boris Kalinin. After the battle of Smolensk he commanded in Moscow in courses for training tank crews. Ludmila persuaded him to go with her on the Southern Front, "utryasla" all issues with headhunters. Since the fall of 1941 the road Ludmilla and Boris together and never apart.
Front troops were engaged in heavy defensive battles against the superior forces of the enemy. Tank units suffered losses in manpower and equipment. Military Engineer 3rd Rank Ludmila Starshinova in a short lull had time to adjust the clock to the front edge of technology "mobile brigade, tractors, cranes, to organize the evacuation lined tanks in the immediate rear. Minor faults eliminated on the spot.

When the Soviet Army entered the straps and new titles, Ludmila Starshinova became an engineer Major. It had before it a large and complex maintenance and repair industry: outdoorsy-repair plant, three army battalions refurbishment, recovery company, subordinate to it over a thousand people. And all this huge "Makhinov" clearly and coherently managed by a woman. Of course, the chief were reliable helpers - Lieutenant Colonel Popov, Babylon, Keysevich Major Fukshansky etc.
. Repairers, restorers, under the leadership of engineer major, then lieutenant-colonel Ludmila Starshinova perform work that is now difficult and to
. Give the following data: five months of 1943 it regained office fifteen hundred tanks, defective and returned them to the combat system. And this is not somewhere in the rear of the factory floor and in the field.
Lyudmila Ivanovna was at the front until the autumn of 1944. Her tank repair service operated smoothly in the South, the North-Caucasian Front and the Independent Coastal Army. Total repairers Starshinova given a second life to three thousand tanks.
For military and labor heroism Lyudmila was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, two Orders of World War II degree, two Orders of Red Star, 23 medals, including "Service in Battle". In 2000, the President of Russia VV. Putin gave her yet another award - the Order of Merit.
. Now, Lyudmila Ivanovna - a retired colonel, works in the Committee of Russia war veterans and military service, educates young people on the example of his colorful life, the heroic exploits of soldiers.
. Lives in Moscow.