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Ludmila Gorbunova
Fictional Character
Worldwar
POD: May 30, 1942
Appearance(s): In the Balance
through
Down to Earth (posthumous reference in Aftershocks)
Type of Appearance: Direct (POV ItB-Stb)
Species: Human
Nationality: Ukrainian citizen of the Soviet Union, later Race-occupied Poland
Date of Birth: 1922
Date of Death: 1965
Cause of Death: Killed in an atomic bombing (Race-German War of 1965)
Religion: Atheist
Occupation: Pilot
Parents: Vadim Gorbunov
Spouse: Heinrich Jäger (died c. 1952)
Relatives: Unspecified number of brothers, including Igor
Military Branch: Soviet Air Force (World War II, Race Invasion of Tosev 3)
Political Party: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Lieutenant Ludmila Vadimovna Gorbunova (1922-1965) was a Soviet fighter pilot. At the beginning of World War II, Gorbunova flew a small U-2 biplane. When the Race's Conquest Fleet invaded Earth in 1942, Gorbunova's small biplane became an asset, as it was so small as to be beneath the Race's notice.

Originally from Kiev, Gorbunova fled to Rossosh when the Germans attacked the city. She went through Osoaviakhim flight training and was enrolled in the Soviet Air Force. When the Race came, Gorbunova was often assigned important missions to aid the Soviet war effort. In her travels, she frequently crossed paths with Heinrich Jäger, a German tank commander. The two eventually fell in love.

At the end of the war, she, Jäger and Jewish freedom fighter Mordechai Anielewicz stopped the Germans from destroying the Polish city of Lodz with a smuggled explosive-metal bomb. During the battle, all three were exposed to nerve gas. Gorbunova was crippled by her exposure. She and Heinrich married, and settled in Lodz, but Heinrich's exposure to the gas was much heavier than Gorbunova's. He died around 1952.

When Germany declared war on the Race in 1965, it deployed atomic bombs against several Polish cities, including Lodz. Gorbunova was among those killed during the bombings.

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