I
will post information about Lyudmila Pavlichenko AKA
Lady Death, a female Soviet Sniper during World War II from Wikipedia and other
links.
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Red Army sniper
Lyudmila Pavlichenko was the most successful of many female World War Two
snipers with 309 confirmed kills
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INTERNET
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko
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Lyudmila Mykhailivna Pavlichenko
(Людмила Михайловна Павличенко)
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Nickname(s)
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Lady Death
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Born
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July 12, 1916
Bila Tserkva, Russian Empire (now Bila Tserkva, Ukraine) |
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Died
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October 10, 1974 (aged 58)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Moscow, Russian Federation) |
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Allegiance
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Service/branch
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Years of
service
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1941 – 1953
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Rank
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Unit
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Battles/wars
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Siege of Odessa
(1941) Siege of Sevastopol (1941–42) World War II |
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Awards
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Other work
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Soviet Committee of the Veterans of War
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Liudmyla Mykhailivna Pavlychenko (Ukrainian: Людмила Михайлівна
Павличенко; Russian: Людмила
Михайловна Павличенко, tr.
Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko; July 12, 1916 – October 10, 1974)
was a Ukrainian Soviet sniper during World War II. Credited with 309 kills, she
is regarded as the most successful female sniper in history.
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1943 postage stamp featuring Pavlichenko
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Second Soviet Union-issued postage stamp
dedicated to Pavlichenko
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Early
life and education
Born
in Bila Tserkva on July 12, 1916, Pavlichenko
(née Belova) moved to Kyiv with her family at the age of
fourteen. There she joined a OSOAVIAKhIM shooting
club and developed into an amateur sharpshooter, while working as a grinder at
the Kyiv Arsenal
factory. In 1937, as a student of Kyiv University she completed a master's
degree in history, focusing on the life of Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
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Lady
Death
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://soviet-awards.com/digest/pavlichenko/pavlichenko1.htm]
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Career
World
War II
In
June 1941, 24-year-old Pavlichenko was in her fourth year of studying history
at the Kyiv University when Germany began
its invasion of the
Soviet Union. Pavlichenko was among the first round of volunteers at
the recruiting office, where she requested to join the infantry and subsequently she was assigned
to the Red Army's 25th Rifle Division;
Pavlichenko had the option of becoming a nurse but refused; "I joined the
army when women were not yet accepted". There she became one of 2,000
female snipers in the Red Army, of whom about 500
survived the war. She made her first two kills as a sniper near Belyayevka,
using a Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle with 3.5X
telescopic sight.
Private
Pavlichenko fought for about two and a half months near Odessa where she recorded 187 kills. When
the Romanians gained control of Odessa her unit was sent to Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, where she fought for
more than eight months. In May 1942, Lieutenant Pavlichenko was cited by the
Southern Army Council for killing 257 German soldiers. Her total of confirmed
kills during World War II was 309, including 36 enemy snipers.
In
June 1942, Pavlichenko was wounded by mortar fire. Because of her growing status
she was withdrawn from combat less than a month after recovering from her
wound.
Pavlichenko
was sent to Canada and the United States for a publicity visit and
became the first Soviet citizen to be received by a US President when Franklin
Roosevelt welcomed her to the White House. Pavlichenko was later invited
by Eleanor Roosevelt
to tour America relating her experiences. While meeting with reporters in Washington, D.C. she was dumbfounded about
the kind of questions put to her. "One reporter even criticized the length
of the skirt of my uniform, saying that in America women wear shorter skirts
and besides my uniform made me look fat". Pavlichenko appeared before the
International Student Assembly being held in Washington, D.C., and later attended CIO
meetings and made appearances and speeches in New York City and Chicago. In Chicago, she stood before large
crowds, chiding the men to support the second front. “Gentlemen,” she said, “I
am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist occupants by now. Don’t you
think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?” Her
words settled on the crowd, then caused a surging roar of support. The United
States gave her a Colt automatic pistol. In Canada she was presented with a
sighted Winchester rifle
now on display at the Central
Armed Forces Museum in Moscow. While visiting
in Canada along with Vladimir Pchelintsev (fellow sniper) and Nikolai
Krasavchenko (Moscow fuel commissioner) they were greeted by thousands of
people at Toronto's Union
Station.
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Lyudmila
Pavlichenko with her comrades
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Lyudmila
Pavlichenko with her medals
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Visit
to the United Kingdom
On
Friday November 21, 1942, Lieutenant Pavlichenko visited Coventry, UK, and accepted donations of
£4,516 from Coventry workers to pay for three X-ray units for the Red Army. She
also visited Coventry Cathedral
ruins, then the Alfred Herbert
works and Standard Car Factory from where most funds had been raised. She had
earlier in the day inspected a Birmingham factory.
Having
attained the rank of major, Pavlichenko never returned to combat
but became an instructor and trained Soviet snipers until the war's end. In
1943, she was awarded the Gold
Star of the Hero of the
Soviet Union, and was commemorated on a Soviet postage stamp.
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'Lady Death': Red
Army sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko holds a rifle as she defends Sevastopol from
the Nazis on June 6, 1942. Photo: AFP
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Later
years and death
After
the war, she finished her education at Kiev University and began a career as a historian. From 1945 to 1953, she was a
research assistant of the Chief HQ of the Soviet Navy. She was later active in the
Soviet Committee of the Veterans of War. Pavlichenko died on October 10, 1974
at age 58, and was buried in the Novodevichye
Cemetery in Moscow.
A
second Soviet commemorative stamp featuring Lyudmila Pavlichenko's portrait was
issued in 1976.
Recognition
Pavlichenko’s
war record was recognized in the Soviet Union by two commemorative stamps
with her portrait (see images above) and in the United States, by a song
("Miss Pavlichenko") composed during World War II by folk singer Woody Guthrie, as a tribute to her war
record and to memorialize her visits to the United States and Canada. It was
released as part of the Asch Recordings.
Battle for
Sevastopol (Russian: "Битва за Севастополь"; Ukrainian:
"Незламна" "Indestructable") a biographical film about
Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a joint Russian-Ukrainian production, was released in
both countries on April 2, 2015. International premiere took place two weeks
later at the Beijing International Film Festival.
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