Maria Zakharivna Shcherbachenko was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal on May 12, 1971 for her compassion, heroism and valor while rescuing the seriously wounded on the battlefield. The Florence Nightingale Medal is a women’s award established by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1912 intended for volunteer nurses and nursing aides of the Red Cross. The award is presented on Florence Nightingale’s birthday May 12 every two years. The medal depicts Florence Nightingale with a lamp in her hand – a recognized symbol of compassion.
Maria Shcherbachenko was born on February 14, 1922 in the Nezhdanivka farm (Kharkiv region) into a peasant family. In the ranks of the Red Army from June 23, 1943 she was a nurse in the 1 Rifle Company of the 835 Rifle Regiment of the 237 Rifle Division of the 40 Army of the Voronezh Front (from October 20, 1943 – the 1st Ukrainian Front). In battles during the crossing of the Dnieper River near the village of Grebeni, Kagarlytsky District in ten days she carried on herself and provided first aid to one hundred and twelve wounded soldiers. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from October 23, 1943 Maria Shcherbachenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Gold Star medal (№ 1073). After the end of the war she was demobilized and worked as a lawyer. She died on November 23, 2016 in Kyiv.
On a rectangular sheet of paper single-sided printed text in black and red. At the top in the center there is a red cross and the name of the organization. Below there is an image of Florence Nightingale with a lamp in her hands. Below the image there is the text indicating the name of the awardee and the name of the award ending with the date and signature of the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross