[1][2] Not long after Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in 1941 she applied to join the Red Army but was denied and told that she was needed to work in the mine.

On 2 November she was accepted into the Red Army as a volunteer as part of the 465th Separate Motorized Rifle Reconnaissance Company due to her knowledge of the area under attack, having grown up in the strategically important village of Knyaginevka.

In addition to providing first aid to troops she also participated in direct combat with the use of small arms and grenades as well as working as a reconnaissance scout.

Some accounts say that she tried to commit suicide to avoid torture upon capture but failed, and German soldiers bayoneted her nearly lifeless body before throwing her into a fire, while others say that her exact cause of death was unknown.

Of the 16 scouts sent on the mission, only one managed to escape the house and provide an account of what happened after he was ordered by the commissioner to leave and report the situation.