Mariya Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya (Russian: Мария Васильевна Октябрьская; 16 August 1905 – 15 March 1944) was a Soviet tank driver and mechanic who fought on the Eastern Front against Nazi Germany during World War II.

After her husband was killed fighting in 1941, Oktyabrskaya sold her possessions to donate a tank for the war effort, and requested that she be allowed to drive it.

She received and was trained to drive and fix a T-34 medium tank, which she named "Fighting Girlfriend" ("Боевая подруга").

While living in Tomsk, she learned that her husband had been killed fighting the forces of Nazi Germany near Kiev in August 1941.

Many of her fellow tankers saw her as a publicity stunt and a joke, but this attitude changed when Oktyabrskaya began fighting in Smolensk.

Oktyabrskaya maneuvered her tank in intense fighting; she and her fellow crew members destroyed machine-gun nests and artillery guns.

[1] A month later, on 17–18 November, Soviet forces captured the town of Novoye Selo in the region of Vitebsk during a night battle.

Oktyabrskaya and a fellow crewman jumped out to repair the track, while other crew members provided covering fire from the turret.

Oktyabrskaya immediately got out of the tank and began to repair the track, amid fierce small arms and artillery fire.

[5][6] In 2014 US National Public Radio featured a cartoon of Oktyabrskaya to headline a story about "rejected princesses" that Disney and other storytellers had hitherto ignored.