Lyudmila Pavlichenko
The deadliest female sniper in history.
She was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II.
She is credited with 309 kills and is regarded as one of the top military snipers of all time.
Hitler and his army didn't like her at all.
When the Germans threatened to tear her into 309 pieces, the exact number of Nazis she had killed thus far, she reveled in it.
She was born in Bila Tserkva in the Russian Empire (currently located in Ukraine) on 12 July 1916.
She joined a OSOAVIAKhIM shooting club and developed into an amateur sharpshooter, while working as a grinder at the Kiev Arsenal factory.
In 1932, at the age of 16, she married Alexei Pavlichenko and gave birth to a son Rostislav.
1937, as a student of Kiev University she completed a master's degree in history.
In June 1941, she was 24 years old and in her fourth year studying history at the Kiev University when Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union.
She was among the first round of volunteers at the Odessa recruiting office, where she requested to join the infantry and subsequently she was assigned to the Red Army's 25th Rifle Division.
She had the option of becoming a nurse but refused.
She was quoted as saying,
"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.
In early August 1941 she made her first two kills as a sniper near Belyayevka.
She fought for about two and a half months near Odessa where she recorded 187 kills.
She was promoted to senior sergeant in August 1941 when she reached 100 confirmed kills.
When the Romanians gained control of Odessa on 15 October 1941, her unit was withdrawn by sea to Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.
There she fought for more than eight months.
In May 1942 newly promoted 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, which included 36 enemy snipers.
In June 1942, Pavlichenko was wounded by mortar fire.
She was sent to Canada and the United States for a publicity visit. She was the first Soviet citizen to be received by a US President when Franklin D. Roosevelt welcomed her to the White House.
Later she was invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to tour America relating her experiences.
While meeting with reporters in Washington, D.C., she was in shock 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.
Later she attended the meetings of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and made appearances and speeches in New York City and Chicago.
In Chicago, she stood before large crowds, asking the men to support the second front. "Gentlemen," she said, "I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist invaders 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 the audience roared in support.
The United States gave her a Colt semi-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, she was greeted by thousands of people at Toronto's Union Station.
In November 1942, she visited Coventry, accepting donations from local workers to pay for three X-ray units for the Red Army.
She also visited Coventry Cathedral ruins.
Then she visited the Alfred Herbert works and Standard Car Factory.
She had inspected a factory in Birmingham earlier in the day.
She was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II.
She is credited with 309 kills and is regarded as one of the top military snipers of all time.
Hitler and his army didn't like her at all.
When the Germans threatened to tear her into 309 pieces, the exact number of Nazis she had killed thus far, she reveled in it.
She joined a OSOAVIAKhIM shooting club and developed into an amateur sharpshooter, while working as a grinder at the Kiev Arsenal factory.
In 1932, at the age of 16, she married Alexei Pavlichenko and gave birth to a son Rostislav.
1937, as a student of Kiev University she completed a master's degree in history.
In June 1941, she was 24 years old and in her fourth year studying history at the Kiev University when Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union.
She was among the first round of volunteers at the Odessa recruiting office, where she requested to join the infantry and subsequently she was assigned to the Red Army's 25th Rifle Division.
She had the option of becoming a nurse but refused.
She was quoted as saying,
"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.
In early August 1941 she made her first two kills as a sniper near Belyayevka.
She fought for about two and a half months near Odessa where she recorded 187 kills.
She was promoted to senior sergeant in August 1941 when she reached 100 confirmed kills.
When the Romanians gained control of Odessa on 15 October 1941, her unit was withdrawn by sea to Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.
There she fought for more than eight months.
In May 1942 newly promoted 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, which included 36 enemy snipers.
In June 1942, Pavlichenko was wounded by mortar fire.
She was sent to Canada and the United States for a publicity visit. She was the first Soviet citizen to be received by a US President when Franklin D. Roosevelt welcomed her to the White House.
Later she was invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to tour America relating her experiences.
While meeting with reporters in Washington, D.C., she was in shock 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.
Later she attended the meetings of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and made appearances and speeches in New York City and Chicago.
In Chicago, she stood before large crowds, asking the men to support the second front. "Gentlemen," she said, "I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist invaders 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 the audience roared in support.
The United States gave her a Colt semi-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, she was greeted by thousands of people at Toronto's Union Station.
In November 1942, she visited Coventry, accepting donations from local workers to pay for three X-ray units for the Red Army.
She also visited Coventry Cathedral ruins.
Then she visited the Alfred Herbert works and Standard Car Factory.
She had inspected a factory in Birmingham earlier in the day.
Having attained the rank of major, Pavlichenko never returned to combat but became an instructor and trained Soviet snipers until the end of the war.
In 1943, she was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
She also was commemorated on a Soviet postage stamp.
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.
Later she was active in the Soviet Committee of the Veterans of War.
She had a stroke and died on 10 October 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
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