Major Mariya Dolina, HSU, passed away

[Henry Sakaida]

Since my book HEROINES OF THE SOVIET UNION was published in 2003, the number of living heroines has considerably dwindled.

In April, I visited with Heroine Mariya Dolina in Kiev. She told me that there are now only 18 living Heroes in all of Ukraine.

As for the number of female Heroines, there were over 90. Now, here they are:

AVIATION:

Mariya DOLINA, Rufina GASHEVA, Yevdokiya PASKO, Nadezda POPOVA, Nina RASPOPOVA, and Anna TIMOFEYEVA.


FIELD MEDICS:

Ludmila KRAVETS, Yekaterina MIKHAYLOVA-DEMINA, and Mariya SHCHERBACHENKO

RESISTANCE:

Nadezhda TROYAN

The oldest is Nina Raspopova, who is 96 years old!

[Henry Sakaida]

Hello all,

I received word that Major Mariya Dolina, Hero of the Soviet Union, passed away in Kiev (Kyiv) on 3.3.2010 and she was buried 2 days later. It was not widely announced and my friends, who were friends of her's, were not told immediately.

Justin Taylan and I visited Major Dolina in April 2009 when she was in the hospital. She was in chronic pain, but frequent visitors and well-wishers helped to take her mind away from the pain. I've attached 3 photos. I am on the left and my friend Justin is on the right.

It was quite a struggle to get in to see Dolina. It was a very special hospital reserved only for high state officials and the extremely wealthy. When we got there, they would not let us in! The low level staffers said she was critically ill and could not talk. But we persisted. Dolina was expecting to receive us and she raised hell. Finally, they let us in.

When we entered her room, we expected her to be on her deathbed. Instead, she was sitting on her bed waiting for us! She had some staffer prepare an elaborate spread on a small table next to her bed...slices of sausages, cheese, ham, fruit, lemon wedges, cookies, bread!!! Then she pulled out a bottle of cognac from a cabinet next to her bed and started pouring drinks for us!
But there weren't enough glasses for all of us (my hosts Valentina Pavlova and Vladik and Sergey Tumasyan), so we grabbed some medicine glasses. Dolina poured everyone a drink and began to toast. We gave a toast to her departed comrades, to the veterans, to friends and family.

Then her doctor walked in...she was a woman doctor, middle aged, in a white smock. Dolina insisted that she drink with us. And the doctor said, "Well, of course!" She gulped it down, wished us well, and said she had to run.
And I turned to Justin and said, "Did you see that? This could NEVER happen in an intensive care ward of an American hospital!!!"

Major Dolina told us she received pain injections several times a day. She said she struggled with pain daily and living was hell. She said she had to live to see the 65th Anniversary of the Soviet Victory. Sadly, she was 2 months short.

Thanks to Major Dolina, veterans from the Great Patriotic War were not forgetten. She fought tenaciously for veterans rights.

With Major Dolina's passing, there are only 2 or 3 Heroines left alive. She was the last of the bomber Heroines.

Dolina was very appreciative of all those who remembered her, especially her American friends. She had kind words for Art Bates.

HENRY

[Art]

A very strong person with a heart of Gold.

[Esteban_cool]

May she rest in peace.

[Norm Braddock]

This is an example where western medicine blows it and could learn from the east. In Eastern Europe, the medical staff figures what the hell. She lived through hell and survived until this age. Let her have a belt-she earned it.

In the west, they let our seniors rot with meds just to buy them another year or three of misery. Better to go out the way she did.

Sorry for the loss.

[Esteban_cool]

Originally Posted by Kapusta Norm

(...)Let her have a belt-she earned it.

In the west, they let our seniors rot with meds just to buy them another year or three of misery. Better to go out the way she did.

Wise words, Norm! At least she had that last privilege of enjoying what she liked till the very end.
And not even a Hero title can give that one.

[Henry Sakaida]

When I returned from Kiev, I wrote the attached while my memory was fresh.
Since I can't post it to this web site as a photo article, I will place it here.

HENRY

[desantnik]

Thank you Henry for a fitting memorial!