Epistinia Stepanova

Epistinia Fyodorovna Stepanova was a Russian woman whose eight sons died in the war, the ninth son died from wounds received at the front. Cavalier of the orders Mother Heroine and the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree.

Biography

Epistinia Stepanova was born on November 18, 1882, on the territory of present-day Ukraine, but from childhood she lived in the Kuban. The Stepanovs lived on the May Day farm in the Timashyovsky District of the Krasnodar Krai. She gave birth to fifteen children.
Her son Aleksandr Sr. was captured in the field, tortured and shot by Whites in retaliation for the help that the Stepanov family provided to the Red Army. Sons Vasily, Filipp, Fyodor, Aleksandr Jr., Ivan, Ilya and Pavel died during the Second World War between 1939 and 1943. Son Nikolai survived the war, but was severely wounded. He returned from hospital in August 1945, was ill for a long time and eventually died of the long-term complications his wounds had caused.
In recent years, Epistinia lived in Rostov-on-Don, in the family of her only daughter, Valentina Korzhova. She died there on February 7, 1969. The soldier's mother was buried in the village Dneprovskaya, Krasnodar Krai, with full military honors.