womenrussia

Menu Icon A vertical stack of three evenly spaced horizontal lines. In early 1941, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was studying russian women snipers at Kiev University, but within a year, she had become one of the best snipers of all time, credited with 309 confirmed kills, 36 of which were German snipers. Pavlichenko was born in 1916 in a small town in Ukraine.

She was described as an independent, opinionated tomboy who was “unruly in the classroom,” as the Smithsonian notes. At the age of 14, Pavlichenko’s family had relocated to Kiev, where she worked as a metal grinder in a munitions factory. Like many young people in the Soviet Union at that time, Pavlichenko participated in OSOAVIAKhIM, a paramilitary sporting organization which taught youths weapons skills and etiquette. When a neighbor’s boy boasted of his exploits at a shooting range,” said Pavlichenko according to the Smithsonian. I set out to show that a girl could do as well. On June 22, 1941, Hitler broke ties with Joseph Stalin and German troops poured into the Soviet Union.

Pavlichenko rushed to join the Soviet army and defend her homeland, but she was initially denied entry into the army due to gender. She looked like a model, with well-manicured nails, fashionable clothes, and hairstyle. Pavlichenko told the recruiter that she wanted to carry a rifle and fight. The man just laughed and asked her if she knew anything about rifles,” Soviet-Awards. Pavlichenko’s effort to join the military.