14 Facts About Antonina Makarova

Antonina Makarovna Makarova was a Soviet war criminal and mass murderer who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Antonina Makarova was convicted of treason, sentenced to death, and executed in 1979.

Antonina Makarova was prosecuted for her role in at least 168 deaths, but was implicated in about 1,500 murders.

Antonina Makarova was born in the small village of Malaya Volkovka in the Sychyovsky Uyezd of Smolensk Governorate.

Antonina Makarova was shy as a child and had forgotten her last name.

Antonina Makarova was hired as a machine gunner to kill Russian POWs and partisans, as well as their families.

Usually, Antonina Makarova was ordered to kill groups of 27 people at a time, which was the number of prisoners the local jailhouse could hold.

Soviet troops captured and killed many Nazi collaborators, but Antonina Makarova, who was at a hospital behind the German lines, was not among them.

In 1945, Antonina Makarova married a Jewish Russian war veteran named Viktor Ginsburg, whose entire family had been murdered by Germans and Soviet collaborators during the war.

Antonina Makarova was once invited to a school to give a speech to students.

Antonina Makarova found out that everyone in his family had the last name Panfilov save one: a woman named Antonina Makarova.

Antonina Makarova was later recognized by several witnesses who had known Makarova during the war.

Antonina Makarova's husband was confused by her arrest, and insisted that the charges had to be a mistake.

Antonina Makarova was one of only three women legally executed by the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin, the others being Berta Borodkina for corruption and serial killer Tamara Ivanyutina.