Ljudmilla Stepanowna Muratowa, née Makarowa

25.04.1925 – 02.06.2019

Ravensbrück: Aug 1943, and later a branch of the camp in the town of Bart - 01 May 1945, Ribnitz-Damgarten

Permanent head of the Rostov regional public organization of anti-fascist resistance fighters and victims of Nazi repression for 42 years.

She organised meetings with former prisoners from France, headed by Rose Guerin, in Rostow/Don. In 1986, during one of the visits, prisoners of Russia and France signed an appeal to the UN Secretary general.

Ljudmilla Stepanowna Muratowa, Foto: J. Bochat
Ljudmilla Stepanowna Muratowa, Foto: J. Bochat

Lyudmila Muratova was born on April 25, 1925 in Rostov-on-Don, USSR. In September 1942 she was stealed in Nazi Germany, where she was forced to work as a cleaner at the Krupp shipyard in the port city of Kiel. In August 1943, she was arrested for participating in the resistance movement and soon sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she became political prisoner #23746. Later transferred to a branch of the camp in the town of Bart. She was released in the column of the "death March" in the city of Ribnitz-Damgarten on 01.05.1945.

After returning to her motherland Lyudmila Muratova worked, studied, received higher education and was actively engaged in social activities. Having passed through all circles of hell and won, L.S. Muratova was the permanent head of the Rostov regional public organization of anti-fascist resistance fighters and victims of Nazi repression for 42 years.

She was a member of the international Committee of the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp.

As a motive in her work she considered the patriotic education of the younger generation, the accumulation of unique historical material and the creation of the Museum "anti-fascist", which is located in the Lyceum #52, in the city of Rostov-on-Don.
In 1982 the Rostov Association for the first time hosted a delegation of prisoners from France, headed by ****Rose Guerin****. French friends visited our city twice more. In 1986, during one of the visits, prisoners of Russia and France signed an appeal to the UN Secretary general (it was published in the book "Memory of the Heart").
As a result of the meeting, the French magazine "LA FEMME SOVIETQUE" ("Sovetskaya zhentshina") published in No. 5 in 1986, ISSN 0320-1724.

In October 2002 Lyudmila went to Germany to the city of Kiel at the invitation of German friends. Just there, at the Krupp shipyard she began her anti-fascist activities during the years of her imprisonment.

Lyudmila often performed on TV, wrote articles in the local newspaper "Evening Rostov" and in the newspaper "Fate" - the international Union of former young prisoners of fascism. After her death, the newspaper published an article about her and her following words:

"The experience must be preserved so that even after decades people know and remember what fascism is. Historical truth must be preserved in books, monuments, and memoirs. But the main thing is that this memory, should be kept in our hearts, in our souls." - Muratova L.S.

written by her daughter Vera Martschenko, 2020