She wrote to Stalin personally to give her a tank for that money, which he obliged.
“My husband was killed in action defending the motherland. I want revenge on the fascist dogs for his death and for the death of Soviet people tortured by the fascist barbarians. For this purpose I’ve deposited all my personal savings – 50,000 rubles – to the National Bank in order to build a tank. I kindly ask to name the tank ‘Fighting Girlfriend’ and to send me to the frontline as a driver of said tank.”
Can someone explain to me how the tank deal worked? I’m looking at the wikipedia article about her and I have no idea what this means:
did she give money to the government to pay for one tank on an assembly line somewhere?
IIRC it was largely symbolic because what she had didn’t come close to paying for a T-34, but they were willing to let her sign up regardless.
Brief googling, she paid for more than a third of a T-34.
She wrote to Stalin personally to give her a tank for that money, which he obliged.
Hell yeah