Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko served as a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II.

Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko served as a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II. She was born on July 12, 1916, and passed away on October 10, 1974.

She is credited with the deaths of 309 enemy combatants. During the early stages of the Eastern Front battles, she served in the Red Army during the sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol. Her kill total of 309 likely ranks her among the top five snipers of all time, but considering that a kill must be confirmed by a third party, her actual kill total is likely much higher.

She was transported to Moscow after being injured by a mortar shell during combat. Following her healing from her wounds, she taught other Red Army snipers and served as a spokesperson for the Red Army. She made a tour of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States in 1942. She was transferred to the Soviet Navy as a senior researcher in 1945 when the war came to an end. She died of a stroke at the age of 58.

𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Lyudmila Belova was born on July 12, 1916, in Bila Tserkva, Kyiv Governorate, Russian Empire (now in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine), to Mikhail Belov, a locksmith from Petrograd, and his wife Elena Trofimovna Belova (1897-1972). When Lyudmila was 14 years old, the family relocated to Kyiv. Her father was a member of the Communist Party and had served as a regimental commissar in the Red Army, earning him the Order of the Red Banner. Lyudmila grew up as a self-described tomgirl who excelled in sports and was a fierce competitor. She joined an OSOAVIAKhIM shooting club in Kyiv, became an amateur sharpshooter, and obtained her Voroshilov Sharpshooter badge and a marksman certificate.

She wed Alexei Pavlichenko in 1932 and had a son named Rostislav (1932-2007). However, the union quickly fell apart, and Lyudmila went back to live with her parents. Along with doing housework, she went to night school. She was a grinder at the Kyiv Arsenal factory during the day.

She enrolled in Kyiv University in 1937 to study history with the goal of becoming a researcher and educator. She competed as a sprinter and pole vaulter for the university's track team. The Red Army enrolled her for six months in a sniping school with military-style training.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐈𝐈

When Nazi Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Pavlichenko was 25 years old and in her fourth year of history at Kyiv University. At the Odessa recruiting office, Pavlichenko made her request to join the infantry as one of the initial volunteers. Pavlichenko was pressured by the registrar to become a nurse but she refused. She was finally admitted into the army as a sniper and reassigned to the Red Army's 25th Rifle Division after it was discovered that she had successfully completed numerous training courses. She joined the Red Army's 2,000 female snipers there, 500 of whom made it through the conflict. She was given a combat role, but due to a shortage of weapons, she was only given a fragmentation grenade. She received a Mosin-Nagant model 1891 bolt-action rifle on August 8, 1941, from a fallen comrade. After proving herself to her allies, Pavlichenko shot her first two adversaries. She called it her "baptism of fire" because it marked the moment she was formally recognised as a sniper.

During the Siege of Odessa, Pavlichenko fought for about two and a half months and is credited with the deaths of 187 soldiers. When she officially tallied 100 more kills in August 1941, she was promoted to senior sergeant. She wed Alexei Kitsenko, another sniper, at age 25. Kitsenko was fatally wounded by a mortar shell shortly after the wedding and passed away from his injuries a few days later in the hospital.

Her unit was transported by sea to Sevastopol, on the Crimean Peninsula, to take part in the siege of Sevastopol, which began on October 15, 1941, when the Nazis and their allies the Romanians overran Odesa. She instructed other snipers there, and they are credited with killing more than 100 Axis soldiers during the conflict. The Southern Army Council cited newly promoted Lieutenant Pavlichenko for the deaths of 257 Axis soldiers in May 1942. Pavlichenko is credited with the deaths of 309 soldiers during World War II, including 36 Axis snipers.

Pavlichenko was struck in the face by shrapnel from a mortar shell in June 1942. The Soviet High Command gave the order for her submarine evacuation from Sevastopol after she became hurt. She stayed in the hospital for about a month.

After she had healed from her wounds, she was given the nickname "Lady Death" and instead of being sent back to the front, she joined the Red Army as a propagandist. Additionally, up until the end of the war in 1945, she trained snipers for use in combat.

𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

As part of the Soviet Union's efforts to persuade the other Allies of World War II to open a second front against Nazi Germany, Pavlichenko was sent on a publicity tour to Canada and the United States in 1942. When she travelled to the US, Franklin D. Roosevelt welcomed her to the White House, making her the first Soviet citizen to be received by a US president. Later, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt invited Pavlichenko to tour the country and share her experiences as a female soldier. Pavlichenko was dismissed by the media during the publicity tour and referred to as the "Girl Sniper."

She was astounded by the questions asked of her when she met with reporters in Washington, D.C. One reporter even said that American women wear shorter skirts and that my uniform made me look fat, criticising the length of my uniform's skirt. They also questioned her about wearing makeup while fighting. The reporters described her as being very direct and emotionless in her responses.

In addition to appearing before the International Student Assembly in Washington, DC, Pavlichenko also made speeches and attended meetings of the Congress of Industrial Organisations while travelling to New York and Chicago. Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York City gave her a raccoon fur coat. She criticised the men in front of a sizable crowd in Chicago for failing to support a second front. "Gentlemen," she said, "I am 26 years old and have already killed 309 fascist invaders. You guys have been hiding behind my back for a long time, don't you think? After her words had time to sink in, the audience erupted in a roar of approval. Her gift from the US government was a Colt semi-automatic pistol.

She received a Winchester Model 70 rifle with a Weaver telescopic sight in Toronto, Ontario, which is now on display at the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow. She was met by a large crowd at Toronto's Union Station while on a visit to Canada with fellow sniper Vladimir Pchelintsev and Moscow fuel commissioner Nikolai Kravchenko.

The Red Army needed three X-ray units, so Pavlichenko travelled to Coventry, England, on Friday, November 21, 1942, and accepted donations totalling £4,516 from local workers. In addition, she paid a visit to the Coventry Cathedral ruins, the Alfred Herbert Works, and the Standard Motor Factory, where the majority of the funds had been raised. She had earlier in the day visited a factory in Birmingham to inspect it.

Pavlichenko, having been promoted to officer, never returned to combat, instead becoming an instructor and training snipers until the war's end. She received the Order of Lenin twice, the Gold Star of the Soviet Union's Hero of the Year in 1943, and other honours.

𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞

Pavlichenko completed her studies at Kyiv University after the war and started a career as a historian. She worked as a research assistant at the Soviet Navy headquarters from 1945 to 1953. Later, she became involved with the Soviet Committee of Veterans of War. During a trip to the Soviet Union in 1957, Eleanor Roosevelt paid a visit to Pavlichenko in Moscow. Due to the loss of her husband in the war, Pavlichenko battled depression on a daily basis. She battled alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder, which are thought to have contributed to her tragic passing.

𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐜𝐲

On October 10, 1974, at age 58, she suffered a stroke and passed away. She was laid to rest in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery. She is buried next to Rostislav, her son. In 1976, the Soviet Union released a second commemorative stamp with her likeness.

𝐈𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞

Woody Guthrie, an American folk singer, wrote the song "Miss Pavlichenko" in honour of her military service and to remember her trips to the US and Canada. As a part of The Asch Recordings, it was released.

The 2015 movie Battle for Sevastopol, whose original Russian title was "итва а евастoол," was about Pavlichenko. It was made jointly by Russia and Ukraine and released on April 2, 2015, in each nation. Two weeks later, at the Beijing International Film Festival, it had its world premiere. With several made-up characters and many changes from the events in her memoirs, it is a heavily romanticised version of her life.

Lady Death, the first edition of her memoirs in English, was released by Greenhill Books in February 2018. It is a part of the Greenhill Sniper Library series by Lionel Leventhal and has a foreword by Martin Pegler.

Eve Arden portrayed Sgt. Natalia Moskoroff, a highly decorated Soviet sniper on a goodwill tour, in the 1944 comedy The Doughgirls.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn, published in 2022, recounts Pavlichenko's experiences during World War II, both in combat and while on tour in the United States.