After her landing group suffered heavy casualties she had the option of hiding in a rye field to wait for reinforcements, but chose instead to stay behind and defend a dugout of wounded soldiers.

Baramzina was born on 19 December 1919, the fifth of six children, to a family of Russian merchants; her father did a variety of odd jobs – fishing, building fences, weaving nets, repairing boats – while her mother baked rye bread to be sold at a market stall.

Having finally been admitted to the Komsomol in 1937, she was assigned as a pioneer leader in addition to her regular teaching duties in August 1939, and during the school year she passed a basic first aid course along with other teachers.

In August 1940, Baramzina enrolled in the Molotov Pedagogical Institute, based in Perm, but left in February 1941 due to scholarship funding cuts and got a job as a kindergarten teacher.

Later, during a forceful reconnaissance mission in late June, she repaired the command post's telephone line fourteen times despite facing intense artillery fire.

With the Red Army convoy preparing their advance as planned in the evening of 4 July, Baramzina was not intended to be part of the landing group, but in the end she convinced her commander to let her go, citing her sniper and medical training.