Born in Chita or in Zhlobin District,[3] Samusenko began her tour of duty as a private in an infantry platoon.

Beyrle, the only American soldier known to have served with both the United States Army and the Soviet Army in World War II, eventually persuaded her to allow him to fight alongside the unit on its way to Berlin, thus beginning a month-long stint in a Soviet tank battalion, where his demolitions expertise was appreciated.

[4] World War II veteran and writer Fabian Garin, in his book Tsvety na tankakh (Flowers on Tanks), mentioned an episode when a certain Mindlin, who fell in love with Samusenko, asked her "not to smoke and drink."

Zhukov wrote that Samusenko was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War[1] of 1936–1939, although Garin discounted this rumor in Tsvety na tankakh.

According to World War II veteran Pyotr Demidov, she was crushed under the tracks of a Soviet tank whose driver could not see the accompanying people in the darkness.