Antonina Makarova "Tonya the Machine-Gun Girl" (1942-1945, Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe, ~200-1500+ victims)
[UWSL]Antonina Makarova was born in a small village in the Sychyovsky Uyezd of Smolensk Governorate. Her birth name was Antonina Parfenova. On her first day at school, Parfenova's name was written down as Makarova, from her father's first name, Makar. She was shy as child and had forgotten her last name. As an adult, Makarova studied in Moscow. When World War II started, she joined the Red Army and became a volunteer nurse. During her military service, Makarova also learned how to use a machine gun.[/UWSL]
In the fall of 1941, Makarova was separated from Soviet troops. In January 1942, she was recruited by the local authorities at the town of Lokot, which was the capital of the Lokot Autonomy, a collaborationist statelet established by the Nazis in October 1941. Makarova was hired as a machine gun shooter and assigned the job of executing Russian POWs and partisans, as well as heir families. Usually, Makarova was ordered to execute groups of 27 people at a time, which was the number of prisoners the local jailhouse could hold. In the evenings Makarova spent time with German officers along with local women who were working as prostitutes. In the summer of 1943 Germans found out that Makarova and the other women had a sexually transmitted disease and they were sent to a hospital in the rearguard.
As the Red Army entered the Lokot region they found remains of about 1,500 people. Soviet troops captured and killed many Nazi collaborators, but Makarova, who was at a hospital behind the German lines, was not among them. In 1945, Makarova married a Russian war veteran named Viktor Ginsburg who was a Jew by origin. His whole family was executed by Germans and Soviet collaborators during the war. They settled in Lepiel, a town in Soviet Belarus, and had two daughters. Antonina and her husband lived as respected citizens enjoying all the privileges granted to war veterans.
The KGB kept the case open for many years but could not find the whereabouts of the "right" Antonina Makarova. In 1976, a Soviet Army officer named Parfenov was registering some documents of his relatives in order to get a visa. He found out that everyone in his family had the last name Parfenov save one: a woman named Antonina Makarova (Ginsburg after marriage). She was later recognized by several witnesses who had known Makarova during the war. Knowing the risk of wrongfully slandering a war veteran and destroying their reputation, the KGB spent a year carefully observing Makarova. They brought people to Lepiel who knew and could identify Tonya the Machine-Gun Girl. They were former lovers and collaborators who had served time in Gulags. After the witnesses affirmed their suspicions, the KGB arrested Makarova.
Throughout her interrogation, Makarova remained calm, believing that due to the lapse of time, she would only serve a few years in prison. However, she was convicted of treason and sentenced to death in November 1978. Makarova was executed by shooting on August 11, 1979, at the age of 59.
Makarova was one of only three women legally executed by the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin, the others being Berta Borodkina for political crimes and serial killer Tamara Ivanyutina.
