On 1 September 2014 by decree of Vladimir Putin she was posthumously declared a Hero of the Russian Federation, making her the sixteenth woman and first Crimean Tatar awarded the title.

Her mother, Meselme, had been born in the neighboring town of Mayak-Salyn to a large family and had grown up in poverty until she married at the age of seventeen; her father Seit-Osman worked at the Metallurgical Plant in Kerch.

[3] After Soviet troops regained territory previously controlled by the Wehrmacht in the Battle of Kursk and the Novorossiysk-Taman Operation, the leadership of the Red Army intended to launch an offensive to retake Crimea next.

The reconnaissance group "Bast" was formed, consisting of two scouts and six agents trained in sabotage, and deployed to the city of Stary Krym; they managed to send over 300 intelligence transmissions to the Red Army.

In order to sufficiently gather the information requested by the Red Army she organized a small scouting group that included her uncle Abduraky Bolatov, schoolteacher Nechipa Batalova, Sefidin and Dzhevat Menanov, Vaspie Ajibaeva, Khairla Mambejanov, and Battal Battalov.

After providing the set of batteries Pavlenko was arrested by the Germans, which Alime reported to headquarters and was instructed by Trusov to travel to a nearby village and stay with relatives.

Late into the night of 25 February the Nazis launched a raid on the house of Sefidin and Dzhevat Menanov, during which most of the scouts including Abdenanova and Gulyachenko were arrested and sent to a prison in Stary Krym.

[1][3][9][10] After the Soviets retook control of Crimea in April 1944, Red Army officers visited Alime's family and praised her bravery, stating that her actions would not be forgotten.

[12] After the fall of the Soviet Union, publication of literature about her actions during the war calling her "the Crimean Zoya",[13] and the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 she was belatedly declared a Hero of the Russian Federation on 1 September 2014.