Vitebsk secondary school No. 30 was named after the Hero of Socialist Labor, Honorary Citizen of Vitebsk Maria Matsenko

12.03.2025

Vitebsk secondary school No. 30 was named after the Hero of Socialist Labor, Honorary Citizen of Vitebsk Maria Matsenko. At a gala event at an educational institution, representatives of the district administration, schools, teachers, relatives of Maria Matsenko, and students remembered her glorious life.

The certificate of awarding the title was presented to the school by the head of the education department of the Oktyabrsky district of Vitebsk, Andrey Pokholkin.

– The name Maria Matsenko is very dear to our region. This amazing woman earned honor and respect for her exploits in both war and peace. In the region, ten schools are named after heroes of the Great Patriotic War. School No. 30 was the first to receive the name of the Hero of Socialist Labor,” noted Andrei Pokholkin.

The war found the Vitebsk resident in Minsk at a course for party workers under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, she was evacuated, from where she was sent to the occupied territory to establish contacts with the Vitebsk underground. Through the so-called “Vitebsk Gate”, as part of the group of V. Khoruzhey, Maria Matsenko crossed the front line and arrived in the partisan brigade under the command of M. Biryulin. From November 1942 to May 1943, she worked as part of V. Kudinov’s special group as an instructor of the Vitebsk underground regional party committee and a member of the Vitebsk underground city party committee. It operated underground until the complete liberation of Vitebsk and the region in 1944.

For the heroism and courage shown in the partisan struggle against the Nazi invaders, Maria Matsenko was awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War” “Partisan of the Great Patriotic War, II degree”.

From the first days of the liberation of Vitebsk, Maria Matsenko became involved in the work of restoring the destroyed city and the Banner of Industrialization factory. She was responsible for clearing the territory, worked equally with everyone else, headed the labor support department, set up subsidiary farming, and supervised the construction of housing. She headed the HR department, then was the head of the sewing workshop and deputy director of the factory. She was a talented organizer, distinguished by an attentive and sensitive attitude towards people, demanding of herself and her subordinates, and had great authority in the team.

For outstanding achievements in labor and fruitful social activities in 1960, Maria Matsenko was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

After her retirement in 1962, Maria Ilyinichna was engaged in social work. She was elected as a deputy of the Vitebsk City Workers' Council. She was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Vitebsk” in 1964.

– I was always proud of my mother. She was very kind, crystal honest and extremely fair to absolutely everyone. That's why everyone loved her. “I knew my mother’s fighting and labor path, and I wanted to be worthy of her,” said Maria Matsenko’s son, Vladimir Koshelev. – After school, I entered a military school and served on a submarine. Then he graduated from the Vitebsk Medical Institute and went to work in the North, in Chukotka, where my mother and father visited me.

Vladimir Koshelev and Maria Matsenko’s granddaughter Olga Kosheleva expressed gratitude to school No. 30 for the work done to perpetuate the memory of their mother and grandmother.

The educational institution has opened an updated museum of the history of the school, in which an exhibition dedicated to Maria Matsenko occupies a special place.