"Pravda" Girls High School

Let's get something clear. First of all, Katyusha is NOT a child. No ifs, ands, or buts. Anyone who says otherwise will be sentenced to hard labor in the coldest and harshest Gulag imaginable, with no hope of release.

Katyusha was as tough as everyone else even before she entered Pravda High School—and became the top student in her class. Who else could fight three other students on her first day and defeat them? Who else could unite the first-year members of Pravda's Sensha-do team into one of the most powerful armored teams in the world? Who else could accept the Saint Gloriana Tea Circle in her first year of high school?

Who else could, with a straight face, give the order to open fire on a defenseless tank - and all for the sake of victory?

But even the great Katyusha is only human. The same mind that understands the nuances of military history still struggles to get up at nine in the morning. The same legs that sent her classmates to the infirmary still walk slower than the rest. And the same spirit that drove them to victory at any cost in the battle against their rivals in Kuromorimine is best revealed after hot soup and a siesta.

So, despite her childish antics, Katyusha is truly a great combat commander. She's one of those commanders who achieved success by standing on the shoulders of giants—or, in her case, sitting. Woe to those who underestimate her.

Appearance
Katyusha has short platinum hair styled in a bob and a petite frame. She has piercing blue-green eyes and a yaeba, or protruding tooth, on the left side.

Katyusha is usually seen wearing the standard Pravda school uniform, complete with mid-calf socks and dark loafers. In Sensei-Do, Katyusha wears a dark green jumpsuit with long sleeves and short legs, emblazoned with Pravda's four-pointed red star. She also sports a Soviet tank helmet with padded ridges along the top, a loose chin strap, and tank boots.

Fighting style
Katyusha typically employs strategies that exploit the enemy's mistakes before she can deliver the killing blow. As we saw in her battles with Ooarai and Kuromorimine, she understands the importance of positioning herself and coordinating her moves to lure the enemy into a trap and then close it. Katyusha's favorite maneuver is the double encirclement, forcing enemies to fight on two fronts to avoid being overwhelmed by Pravda.

Katyusha is not only an excellent tactician but also knows how to use weather conditions to her advantage. As a Soviet-themed school, Pravda is accustomed to fighting in the bitter cold, giving her team an advantage in wars of attrition, as sub-zero temperatures are devastating to enemy tanks and undermine morale.

Katyusha's core arsenal consists of Soviet-era T-34 tanks armed with 76mm or 85mm guns. Katyusha also has access to one of the most powerful armored vehicles ever to serve in World War II—the IS-2 heavy tank and the KV-2 heavy assault tank. She typically uses the IS-2 as the vanguard, with her loyal lieutenant Nonna as the gunner. Katyusha relies on her beloved KV-2 for fire support missions. Its powerful 152mm howitzer destroys virtually everything it hits.

In the manga
In the anime
Katyusha and Nonna
Katyusha first appears in episode 8 alongside Nonna, where they meet with Ooarai's commanders before her match. After Anzu Kadotani offered to shake her hand, Katyusha ordered her second-in-command Nonna to carry her on her shoulders, then mocked Ooarai's numerical superiority. As they parted, Katyusha sarcastically "thanked" Miho Nishizumi for winning last year's tournament.

Katyusha led Pravda to the city where Oorai was located and surrounded it. She offered terms of surrender and gave them two hours to consider. When Oorai refused to surrender, determined to fight to the bitter end, Katyusha attempted to lure them into a gap in her defensive line. However, when Oorai broke through, attacking her vanguard, Katyusha was forced to change tactics: she sent her flagship tank into the line of fire while the rest of her forces pursued Oorai's flagship. Ultimately, Katyusha lost the semifinals to Oorai after her flagship tank was ambushed.

After the match, Katyusha accepted the defeat with dignity and promised to root for Miho and Ooarai in the final against Kuromorimine.

Read more about the match on the following pages:

63rd National High School Tournament: Semifinals (Ooarai vs. Pravda)
Pravda High School
Der Film
Katyusha appears again in Girls and Tanks: The Movie.

In the first exhibition match, Katyusha leads the Pravda squad as part of a combined team with the St. Gloriana Girls' Academy against the combined forces of the Ooarai and Chi-Ha-Tan Academies. She first appears breaking through the Ooarai and Chi-Ha-Tan defenses on the golf course to rescue the pinned St. Gloriana tanks. Later in the battle, Katyusha pursues the Ooarai flagship tank (Team Eel) and ultimately sacrifices herself to allow the Darjeeling Churchill to knock out a Panzer IV, winning the match.

In the Battle of Ooarai, Katyusha answers Darjeeling's call to arms and, along with four tanks from Pravda, joins the Ooarai team and the university's All-Stars team. Katyusha is appointed deputy commander of the Sunflower Company under Maho Nishizumi. When the company comes under heavy artillery fire and is forced to retreat, Katyusha's teammates sacrifice themselves to cover her retreat. Despite shock and grief, Katyusha gathers her strength and continues to fight.

When the battle moves to the amusement park, Katyusha is initially sent to the southern entrance and then joins the Kuromorimin tanks to destroy the University Team's feint. She remains with this team, attempting to break through the encirclement at the amphitheater, but they are unsuccessful. After Team Rabbit from Ooarai breaks through the encirclement using the Ferris wheel, Katyusha retreats and eventually joins Teams Leopon and Ant from Ooarai in skirmishes with enemy Pershings. Her tank is one of the last to be disabled in a brief skirmish with the "Bermuda Trio" of company commanders from Team All-Stars.

At the very end of the film, she appears with the rest of the Ooarai team to congratulate Miho on her victory and, in her cheerfully arrogant manner, personally accept Ooarai's gratitude for the help of all the other schools.

More detailed information about the matches can be found on the following pages:

Girls und Panzer: der Film
Exhibition match (Oorai-Chi-Ha-Tan vs. Saint Gloriana-Pravda)
Battle of Oorai (Oorai Team vs. All-Star Team)
Das Finale
Katyusha appears in the "Das Finale" arc, possibly in her final months as commander of Pravda's sensha-dō before graduation. In this arc, she leads Pravda's team in the 41st Winter Continuous Cross-Country Skiing Championships, supported by Nonna and Clara.

In the second part, Team Pravda advances to the 1/8 finals, defeating Viking Fishing High School in a rapid, radio-silent attack through a snowy forest.

In Part III, Katyusha and Pravda face the Kuromorimine Girls' Academy, led by Erika Itsumi, in the quarterfinals. Taking up a position atop a hill, Katyusha plans to exploit her advantage by focusing fire on Kuromorimine's heavy tanks before launching an offensive. Her strategy is initially successful, disabling the Maus and Elephant and immobilizing the Jagdtiger, but things go awry when Erika changes strategy and decides to attack her flank with a small platoon. Katyusha personally leads a small force to repel Erika's onslaught, but Erika manages to break through and head for the hilltop. Realizing that Erika intends to attack her flagship's fortified position, Katyusha orders the flagship's commander, Klara, to change positions, but she is unable to escape her trench. Just as Klara climbs out of the trench, Erika's Panzer III climbs to the top of the hill, taking advantage of the trench's slope to take off. Erika's crew fires at Klara's frontal armor, and although the Katyusha manages to catch up and destroy the Panzer III, it's too late. Much to Katyusha's dismay, Pravda is eliminated from the Winter Track Racing Cup.

More detailed information about the matches can be found on the following pages:

Girls und Panzer: Das Finale Part 2
Girls und Panzer: Das Finale Part 3
Etymology
Katyusha is a diminutive form of the name Ekaterina (Yekaterina), the English version of the name is "Catherine" or "Katherine".

Nonna attends Pravda Girls' High School and is Katyusha's deputy. She often takes care of Katyusha and lets her sit on her shoulders so she doesn't feel so small.

In Sensha-do, Nonna is the commander and gunner of one of the most powerful Soviet tanks of World War II, the IS-2.

Appearance
Nonna is a tall, beautiful, determined, and elegant girl with straight, mid-back-length dark brown hair with a small strand in the middle, light blue eyes, and noticeably large breasts for her age. She usually wears the "True Sensha-do" uniform and black knee-high socks.

Character
Nonna is known for her calm and gentle, yet cool, personality, as well as her devotion and special relationship with Katyusha. Nonna is Katyusha's closest confidant, and she does everything Katyusha asks of her because she considers her special. Nonna usually fulfills her requests without hesitation or objection, and she often carries her on her back to compensate for Katyusha's small stature. Despite this, she is not averse to making fun of her, just as Katyusha often makes fun of Nonna. Clearly, only Nonna gets away with this behavior without incurring Katyusha's wrath, as their relationship is very close, almost like that of mother and daughter, despite the fact that in some situations Katyusha is the one in charge. Besides Katyusha, Nonna's only friend is Klara, a defector student from a Russian school, with whom she usually speaks in her native language, which irritates Katyusha, as she doesn't understand anything they say.

Nonna's Shot
Nonna shoots accurately
In the official spin-off manga Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu!, she is shown to be very protective of Katyusha and literally acts like her mother, confirming that she is Katyusha's mother when others mistake her for her, much to Katyusha's dismay (Darjeeling later behaved similarly toward Orange Peko). Along with Nishizumi Maho, she is the only one in the series Katyusha truly fears and respects. When she thinks Nonna is angry, Katyusha literally begs her for forgiveness, as she did when she accidentally poked Nonna in the eye while being carried piggyback after discovering Nonna kept some kind of "Katyusha Diary" (though, judging by the series itself, it's likely just a record of Katyusha's cute childhood actions).

"Katyusha's Diary" is a good example of how Nonna puts her feelings for Katyusha into practice. Keeping "Katyusha's Diary" is Nonna's favorite pastime. She spends a lot of time and effort researching sources for it. It turns out she's willing to put Katyusha in awkward situations just to secretly photograph her when she's looking "cute." Nonna does this quite often. Because Klara's father holds a high position in the Russian state bureaucracy, Nonna gained access to photographs of Klara's father holding little Katyusha. These photographs were taken in the information department.

The reason why Nonna carries Katyusha on her back is shown in the Saga of Pravda manga: when Katyusha (not yet a commander) was unable to convey her strategic proposal to her teammates because the staff thought she was a little girl, Nonna put Katyusha on her shoulders with the words, "This way, no one will ever think of you as a little girl again."

She is so self-possessed that she never raises her voice or loses her temper; everything she does is filled with the same measured grace and calculated determination.

Background
During the match against Ooarai Girls' Academy, Nonna fought alongside Katyusha, helping her lure Ooarai's tanks into a dilapidated church. She then stood by Katyusha's side during the three-hour ceasefire. When the battle resumed, it was she who, with a well-aimed shot, stopped Team Turtle's tank after it had dealt a devastating blow to Pravda's vanguard. Then, following Katyusha's instructions, Nonna transferred to the school's IS-2 and began destroying the retreating enemy, targeting Ooarai's flagship tank. Showing her sniper skills, she managed to destroy both Team Rabbit and Team Mallard, but despite her best efforts, Ooarai's flagship tank (Team Duck) miraculously survived her shot, while Pravda's flagship tank was hit and destroyed by Team Hippo.

She later appeared again in the final with Katyusha to watch the match.

In the manga Pravda Senki, Nonna initially considered Katyusha a rival because she scored higher on the entrance exams. Nonna first met Katyusha face to face when she found her beaten near the gym's utility room. Their friendship began after Nonna helped Katyusha recover in the infirmary. After the first-graders, led by Katyusha, unexpectedly defeated the third-graders, Nonna recognized Katyusha's uniqueness.

Alina, along with Nina, is one of the loaders of Katyusha's beloved KV-2 tank. She is also the deputy commander of the Katyusha Volunteer Army and the Pravda Tankathlon Unit, where she commands a T-70.

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Appearance
Alina is a short girl with short brown hair and brown eyes. She wears the standard Pravda uniform. She wears either simple black shoes or knee-high black or black low-top boots.

Character
Of all her tank crew members, she seems to be the most proactive, given her suggestion in the film that they sacrifice themselves to cover their retreat. Despite being a first-year, she makes a significant contribution to the team.

Background
Truth vs. Oarai
Alina doesn't appear in the anime, but in the OVA. While Nina was clearing the snow from the outside of the tank, Alina was inside, waiting. Therefore, she didn't immediately appear when Yukari Akiyama and Erwin introduced themselves as Pravda students and tricked Nina into revealing Pravda's plans. After the Oarai students left, she jumped out of the tank and asked Nina who those people were, to which Nina honestly replied that they were their senior teammates.

Der Film
In the film, it is Alina who suggests using their KV-2 to block the All-Stars' tanks and allow the rest of Team Sunflower—Katyusha in particular—to retreat. During this rearguard action, she, like the rest of the team, fires her gun.

Volunteer Army "Katyusha"
Commander Alina KVA
Alina leads her T-70 platoon into battle against Bonple.
During the "Ribbon Warrior" arc, Alina was appointed commander of Katyusha's Volunteer Army alongside Nina. Katyusha told her that if she didn't win, she would be "deported to Siberia before graduating." Her first battle was against Bonpleu High School, commanded by Yaika. Upon their first face-to-face encounter with Yaika, Alina and Nina were intimidated by the enemy commander's imposing presence. After Yaika called Katyusha a child, Katyusha ordered the Red Army soldiers to "completely destroy and exterminate them."

Unbeknownst to the spectators, nor to the students at Bonple High School, the KVA had not one platoon of 16 T-70 tanks, but two platoons, for a total of 32 T-70s. Sixteen tanks, under Nina's command, launched a frontal assault on Yaika's forces, while the remaining sixteen, under Alina's command, executed a flanking maneuver to outflank the enemy. They were able to complete their operation and destroy many of Bonple's tanks caught in the double encirclement, but they were unable to detect and prevent six Bonple tanks from breaking through the encirclement and delivering a successful decapitating blow to Nina's flagship tank. Thus, despite adhering to the Katyusha doctrine, Nina and Alina's first tank duel ended in defeat.

Nina is a first-year student at the Pravdinskaya Secondary School for Girls; she loads the school's KV-2, Katyusha's favorite tank. She is also the commander of the Pravda newspaper's tank-building team, the "Katyusha Volunteer Army."

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Appearance
Nina is a petite girl with medium-length black hair tied into two pigtails at the back of her head and blue eyes. She is almost always depicted wearing a brown fur hat, the "Pravda" Sensha-dō uniform vest, and black socks, both in the OVA and other derivative works such as MLLSD and Ribbon Warrior.

Character
The shy and youthful Nina is a rather innocent and naive girl, as evidenced by how easily she falls for Yukari and Erwin's tricks (in Episode 9 and OVA 5). In the spin-off, she is also shown to be clumsy: she leans on a colossal statue of Katyusha and knocks it over, shattering it. She is also not shy about speaking her mind, and in the spin-off, she provokes Katyusha's ire by commenting on her short stature (even though she is taller than Katyusha only because of her hat).

Despite her timidity and constant clashes with Katyusha and Nonna due to her clumsiness, Nina is one of the most powerful followers of the Katyusha Doctrine, capable of fighting just like her commander. She skillfully commanded the KVA during the Tankatlon match, but ultimately lost due to underestimating her opponent, much like Katyusha herself did with Ooarai.

Background
Truth versus lies. Oarai
Although she didn't appear in the anime, she played a key role in the fifth OVA, where she was approached by Yukari Akiyama and Erwin, disguised as Truth students, while she was ensuring snow didn't accumulate on the treads of her tank. Nina believed them to be her upperclassmen and fell for their ruse. Over a cup of cocoa, she innocently revealed her commander's plans and the disposition of their troops, thereby providing the Oarai couple with the information they needed.

Der Film
During Der Film, she serves as the KV-2's loader. She initially agrees to have their tank block the road to prevent the All-Stars University Team's tanks from passing, and then loads the gun while the KV-2 fights a rearguard action to allow the rest of Team Sunflower to retreat.

Volunteer Army "Katyusha"
During the "Ribbon Warrior" arc, Nina was appointed commander of the Katyusha Volunteer Army alongside Alina. Upon her appointment, Katyusha told Nina that if she lost, she would be "deported to Siberia before graduating." Her first battle was against Bonpleu High School, commanded by Yaika. Upon their first face-to-face encounter with Yaika, Alina and Nina were intimidated by the enemy commander's imposing presence. After Yaika called Katyusha a child, Katyusha ordered the KVA to "completely destroy and exterminate them."

KVA Commander Nina
Nina leads the KVA into battle against Bonple.
In this battle, Nina commanded 16 T-70 tanks against eight 7TP tanks and two TPS tankettes of Bonple's army. As they advanced toward the enemy, several of Nina's tanks were ambushed, and at least one was disabled. However, they continued to advance deeper into the forest, forcing Bonple's troops to retreat even further. When Nina's forces became bogged down in a swamp, 16 additional T-70s under Alina's command surrounded Bonple's forces, creating a double encirclement. Victory secured, Nina and several of her tanks retreated to ensure the safety of their flagship. However, they were unaware that Yaika and several of her tanks had, using camouflage, eluded the encirclement. To Nina's horror, Bonple ambushed her group again and quickly destroyed Nina's flagship tank, thus winning the match between Pravda and Bonple Tankatolon. Thus, despite following the Katyusha doctrine, Nina and Alina's first match in Tankatolon ended in defeat.

Katyusha realized that Nina had followed her doctrine during the match and seemed to not punish her, realizing that nothing could have been done even if Katyusha herself had led the KVA forces.

Interesting facts
The Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu! series features a sequel OVA detailing Nina's "punishment" for leaking crucial information to her opponent, causing the Truth to lose the match.

Klara is a student translator from Novosibirsk, a city in the Siberian region of Russia. She transferred to Pravda Girls' High School sometime between the events of the 63rd National Sensha-do Tournament for High School Students and the exhibition match against Oarai and Chi-Ha-Tan. Klara serves as one of the Katyusha leaders alongside Nonna and commands a T-34/85 tank.

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Appearance
Clara is an attractive woman with shoulder-length platinum hair and a widow's peak. She has pale blue eyes and is quite tall, only slightly shorter than Nonna.

In most of her appearances, Clara wears a Pravda uniform and black calf-length socks.

Character
Like Nonna, Klara is a very calm girl, never raising her voice or losing her temper, even during challenging sensha-do matches. Everything she does is done with the same measured grace and calculated determination. She is more sociable than Nonna, even interacting with students from other schools. She seems to enjoy non-alcoholic vodka: at the end of the film, after Ooarai Girls' Academy's victory over the University All-Stars team, she is holding a bottle, and, according to Nonna, she was drinking it when she mistakenly signed the transfer papers to Pravda. Klara speaks Russian and has a habit of communicating with Nonna in the language, which irritates Katyusha. However, it is later revealed that she is also fluent in Japanese, which surprises Katyusha.

However, in The Truth Saga, she is completely different from how we see her in the films. She is a very arrogant, aggressive, and unstable girl, who has completely lost her mind due to her solipsistic view of the world and others. Klara also has small fangs; this is likely due to the fact that in some drawings she is compared to a wolf. Because of this, she views other people as despicable and worthless creatures. Except for Nonna, who was the only one who, in her own words, "awakened" something in her cold heart, and Katyusha, who completely destroyed the illusion she lived in. She also frequently raises her voice: in Chapter 20, she constantly yells at Nonna during their argument, saying that she feels numb, that she has a "hole in her chest" that causes her constant pain and suffering. Remarkably, she believes Nonna is untouched by this existential illness because Klara sees her as "whole," unlike herself. After meeting Nonna and Katyusha, Klara decides to move to Pravda for Nonna's sake. She promised to stay with her in Japan and help care for Katyusha.

Family
Little is known about Clara's family. Her family has appeared in several other media, but they are unlikely to be considered canon.

The drama CD mentions that her father works for foreign intelligence, and she used this to gather information about Katyusha, including a photo of her as a baby.

In the "Truth Saga," Clara was associated with the Russian military (Russian Ground Forces). This manga also suggests that Clara's mother's name is Victoria and that she is a general in the Russian army.

Background
Clara, along with Katyusha, Nonna, Nina, Alina, and some other Pravda students, temporarily transferred to Ooarai Girls' Academy to join the Ooarai team and compete against the university's All-Star team.

During a battle with the University All-Stars team, Clara sacrifices her tank to ensure Katyusha and the others' successful retreat.

In the audio play, Katyusha interrogates her, but since she speaks Russian most of the time, Nonna acts as translator. They have a friendly conversation about who knows best what makes Katyusha so wonderful, and they share secrets. Meanwhile, Nonna has translated the reasons for Klara's transfer. According to the translation, Klara was watching television and drinking non-alcoholic vodka when she signed a document she thought was an agreement to stay overnight, although in reality it was an application for admission to Pravda, the refusal of which would have resulted in hefty fines her family could not afford. However, this was a false translation, created by Nonna to deceive Katyusha while they discussed facts known to Katyusha.