On June 22, 1941, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was eating breakfast at a café on Pushkin Street in Odessa with her colleagues. It was a clear, regular Sunday, and nothing in the morning suggested that the world was about to collapse. Then came an announcement over the radio: Germany had invaded the Soviet Union. In the café, little changed at first.

No one canceled their plans. Business went on as usual, and few in the city grasped the gravity of what had just happened. They had been thrust into the most brutal conflict in human history, and for Lyudmila, the life she had carefully built over the past twenty-five years was about to end. She was born Lyudmila Mikhailovna Belova on July 12, 1916, in Belaya Tserkov, a village near Kiev, to Mikhail Belov, a veteran of the Civil War, and his wife Elena.

In 1932, at the age of sixteen, she interrupted her studies to work in a Kiev factory. The factory offered its workers classes and activities in the arts and sports, and Lyudmila chose to learn how to shoot. The first firearm she handled was the TOZ-8, a simple and easily produced bolt-action rifle. From her very first shot, her instructor could see that she had remarkable talent.

Soon after joining, she earned the Voroshilov Marksman badge. The program gave her a passion for weaponry, but in 1935 she left the factory and the shooting program behind to continue her schooling. Around that time she married a man named Alexei Pavlichenko. The marriage did not last, and after 1938 the two would never meet again.

Their son, Rostislav, stayed with Lyudmila’s side of the family. She did not touch a rifle again until the bombing of Guernica in Spain in 1937. The attack frightened her, and she worried that a future fascist threat might require her to use the skills she had once developed. She joined a rigorous two-year program designed to train the best sharpshooters, and it was there that she was introduced to the Mosin three-line rifle.

By the end of the course, she could assemble and disassemble it with her eyes closed. Her new instructor, like her old one, quickly recognized her abilities and regarded her as one of his most capable pupils. When she graduated in 1939, the Nazis had already begun their conquest of Europe, occupying entire countries with terrifying speed. Lyudmila, like many Russians at the time, believed the Red Army would easily crush the Germans if fighting came.

She continued attending university as usual. In January 1941, she moved to Odessa to work as a research assistant in one of Ukraine’s most established libraries, hoping it would ease her path to a diploma. Before leaving, she bid farewell to her family, not knowing that the next time she would see them, she would be a soldier. The day after the radio announcement, she went to enlist.

She was turned away. The man she spoke to had no idea what a sniper was, since it was not yet an established role in the military, and he struggled to accept that women could serve in the army in any capacity other than medical staff. Undeterred, she returned the next day, spoke to a new registrar, and on June 24, 1941, she joined the other recruits setting off for the front. She was assigned to the 54th Stepan Razin Rifle Regiment, part of the 25th Chapayev Rifle Division, and was sworn into the military on June 28.

She was disappointed when she was issued only an RGD-33 hand grenade, the result of a weapons shortage plaguing the entire Soviet army. During the first month of the war, much of the Red Army was forced to retreat, though her division managed to hold its ground on the Prut River. In July, however, the 25th Rifle Division and the rest of the Soviet forces on the Southern Front were compelled to retreat before Romanian forces that vastly outnumbered them and had been equipped with superior German weaponry. During the withdrawal, Lyudmila witnessed the suffering of innocent, unarmed civilians for the first time.

There was little she could do about it with a single hand grenade. That changed when a comrade, struck and heavily injured by artillery fire, handed her his Mosin-Nagant three-line rifle. On August 8, 1941, the fascists got their first taste of Private Pavlichenko’s rage. In the Romanian-occupied village of Belyayevka, she killed two enemy officers.

From that point on, her tally grew steadily day by day. The enemy outnumbered the Soviets six to one, yet even undersupplied and outmanned, the Soviet troops repelled the enemy on several occasions. But skill and resolve could not change the arithmetic of attrition. The enemy enjoyed superiority in nearly every factor but determination, especially in artillery.

Only eleven days after her debut as a sniper, Lyudmila was caught in an artillery barrage. The injuries put her in a hospital back in Odessa. On August 30, she returned to the front lines, promoted to corporal just a month and a half after joining the army. During this stage of the war, Lyudmila and two others would sneak close to the enemy, using various hiding spots, and then open fire without warning, killing as many as twenty soldiers a day, many of them officers.

After one particularly successful mission, she was promoted to junior sergeant. She was so effective that the commander of the entire 25th Rifle Division, Ivan Yefimovich Petrov, personally presented her with a new SVT-40 rifle, engraved with his congratulations for her first one hundred fallen invaders. During their conversation, Petrov asked if she was Ukrainian, given her surname. Lyudmila explained that she was Russian and that her maiden name was Belov.

Petrov recognized the name immediately. He had fought alongside her father in the Civil War and had earned the Order of the Red Banner with him. Lyudmila had just made a valuable acquaintance in the Soviet high command, and the connection to Ivan Petrov would prove valuable throughout the war. Not long after that meeting, she was promoted to sergeant.

The regimental commander assigned her to train new sharpshooters and gave her the authority to choose the finest soldiers in the regiment or train new ones. Some soldiers doubted that a woman could teach them how to shoot, but she quickly taught them to respect her. Those she trained became first-rate sharpshooters and fought alongside her, defending and reclaiming strategically important villages near Odessa. It was in those liberated villages that Lyudmila befriended the locals.

Through them, she learned about the terrible crimes the occupying Nazis had committed. The horrific stories solidified her hatred for the invaders once and for all. On October 13, 1941, Lyudmila decided to use the SVT-40 given to her by Petrov. The SVT was a new model, and although it had clear advantages in some situations, it was complicated and prone to malfunctioning in sub-optimal conditions.

This is what caused it to fail during a particularly fierce battle in the dusty Black Sea steppe. To repair the rifle in the cramped trenches, she had to take off her helmet and inspect the weapon to figure out what had gone wrong as the mechanisms began to give way. She was struck in the face by a splinter from a mortar explosion. Luckily, her rifle came in handy that day: the inscription on it showed she was an associate of the major general, and she was given priority treatment, quite possibly saving her life.

At that point, she had nearly doubled the number engraved on her rifle, having killed 187 fascists. When she passed through Odessa, she saw how much the city had changed in the three months since the war began. Most of it was now in ruins. As she recovered, the Soviets retreated from Odessa to the Crimean peninsula, and she stayed with the 47th Medical Battalion during the journey.

From the port in Odessa, the 54th Rifle Regiment was transported by the Black Sea Fleet to Sevastopol, facing aerial attacks along the way. When she arrived, she was surprised by how oddly peaceful the city was, especially compared to the destruction she had witnessed in Odessa. The people of Crimea were friendly, and the soldiers were treated well. Within a week of arrival, on October 21, her division moved to defend the north side of the peninsula from the Germans.

Lyudmila had not yet healed and did not go with them. While she was recovering, she was promoted to senior sergeant. By chance, she ran into Major General Petrov again, who gave her command of a sniper platoon of fifty-one soldiers. Sergeant Pavlichenko and her platoon rejoined the regiment during the brutal fighting in nearby Nazi-occupied villages.

Back in action, she carefully executed attacks that inflicted heavy losses on the Germans, including many officers. She once again befriended and inspired locals to fight alongside her, and some even formally joined the Red Army. On December 19, while defending the Soviet lines from a German armored vehicle, Lyudmila was incapacitated by a shell that struck her in the shoulder, causing serious bleeding and pinning her under a tree. After being miraculously found and rescued by an acquaintance, Alexei Kitsenko, she was taken to a field hospital.

Less than a week later, the two were married, and despite the bloody war she was fighting, she would later say she was completely happy during those days. Senior Sergeant Pavlichenko had gathered such a reputation that legends circulated among both her fellow soldiers and her enemies, with some maintaining she had supernatural powers. The rumors were outlandish, but they existed for a reason. She succeeded in eliminating an accomplished German sniper, Helmut Bommel, who had fought in several theaters of war, killed 215 Allied soldiers, and served as a sniping instructor in Berlin.

Lyudmila and her platoon were also specially brought in to eliminate a particularly dangerous group of Nazi snipers who were repeatedly attacking Soviet forces. After the fight was won, they captured enemy documents, military devices, and an important position, all without losing a single soldier. After these incidents, she became famous not only among her comrades on the front but throughout the entire Soviet Union. On February 2, 1942, Lyudmila was invited to speak at a conference along with other famous female figures, many of whom were accomplished soldiers like herself.

It was the first time she had attended an event like this, and she did not consider herself good at public speaking. Despite her lack of confidence, she was so moved by the previous speakers that she abandoned the notes she had prepared and delivered a passionate speech. It was not just Lyudmila who was being recognized. The Soviet soldiers in and around Sevastopol were generally treated like heroes in the towns and villages they defended.

Locals let them into their houses, treated them with meals and gifts, and shoe shiners and washerwomen performed their services free of charge. Spring had not yet come when her husband was killed. The two were talking about childhood memories when Kitsenko was suddenly struck by splinters from an enemy shell. There was little hope of recovery.

He struggled in and out of consciousness over the following days and died of his injuries on March 4, 1942. He was buried soon after. Lyudmila was diagnosed with PTSD a few days later. She had little time to grieve.

The Germans were gathering their forces for a direct attack on the city. They outnumbered the Soviets two to one in infantry, nearly four to one in artillery, and eight to one in aircraft. On top of that, the Soviets were low on ammunition. The Germans took the entire Kerch Peninsula and launched devastating consecutive air attacks, granting little respite to the overwhelmed Soviet pilots and the citizens of Sevastopol.

The weather was scorching, reaching forty degrees Celsius, and constant fires from the bombing made it worse. The drought caused by destroyed pipelines only added to the misery. Despite the grim situation, the defenders of Sevastopol prepared to fight tooth and nail. The SVT-40 was complex and temperamental, so while fighting in the forests and trenches of Crimea, Lyudmila relied on the Mosin rifle and used the SVT mainly for events where no actual fighting would take place.

But when the Nazis launched another assault on Sevastopol on June 7, 1942, she decided its time had finally come. Preparing to repel a horde of enemy infantry, she devised a new strategy: she would shoot the stomachs of the second row rather than the heads of the first. A shot to the stomach was mortal but not instant, causing the soldiers to writhe and scream in pain. This disrupted the soldiers around them and lowered the morale of the enemy.

Although Lyudmila managed to stop the German advance on her position, the Germans broke through Soviet defenses two kilometers away and entered the city. A large part of the Soviet forces was destroyed, and ammunition and food became even more desperately scarce. Lyudmila knew the enemy was bound to capture the city, but the beaten and bandaged Soviet forces swore to fight with no less determination than when the war had just begun. A few days later, Lyudmila was struck by artillery again and heavily wounded.

She was transported along with the other injured soldiers to Novorossiysk. She had managed to hold back the Nazis for a full 250 days, but Sevastopol eventually fell to the enemy. While she was recovering, her division, the 25th Chapayev Division, was destroyed, and her friends had all perished in the fall of the city. In Novorossiysk, Lyudmila ran into Ivan Petrov once again.

To the surprise of the major general, she requested to be returned to combat. When asked why she was so eager to fight, she replied: “I have still not yet gotten even with the Nazis for the death of my army friends. For the deaths of the totally innocent peaceful residents, the Nazis must be punished for what they have committed on her land. ”

Despite her heroic enthusiasm, she would not see action again.

As recognition for her bravery and service, Major General Petrov recommended Lyudmila to Marshal Semyon Budyonny for a promotion to junior lieutenant. Even the famous war hero Budyonny was impressed by her tally of 309 fascists. She was given the promotion and awarded the Order of Lenin. Junior Lieutenant Pavlichenko was now commander of a sniper platoon in the 32nd Guards Parachute Division, which, despite the word “parachute” in its name, was currently just a division of the Red Army’s best infantry, due to the lack of planes.

Lyudmila was flown to Moscow, where the division was located, along with Petrov, who was flying there to report to Stalin. After speaking at a Komsomol Central Committee meeting, the first secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee, Nikolai Mikhailov, noted that she had talent as an orator. Despite this, Lyudmila did not use her speaking abilities much while continuing to live in Moscow, choosing not to interact with people aside from attending meetings and training snipers. She avoided socializing and skipped regular social events, quietly grieving her husband.

She was also needed for propaganda purposes and was interviewed by many journalists, some of whom published as much fiction as fact. On August 3, 1942, Lyudmila’s life took another turn. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt invited the Soviet Union to send three delegates to speak in the United States in order to convince America to help the Allies in Europe. Lyudmila was unaware she had been chosen until just two days before the journey began.

She and the others selected were briefed by Joseph Stalin himself, then put on a long series of flights to America. Almost immediately after arriving, she met First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt over an American breakfast. Meeting her for the first time, Lyudmila found the First Lady a bit rude and ignorant. The delegation’s first conference did not go well either.

After the three gave their speeches, the American journalists largely ignored what they had said and sent Lyudmila a barrage of insulting questions. They received contempt-filled replies in return. After the verbal sparring, Eleanor Roosevelt offered to drive Lyudmila to supper, seeming to have forgotten their earlier interaction. Lyudmila accepted, and consequently witnessed the First Lady’s terrifying driving.

Perhaps life-threatening situations bring people together. As the Soviet representatives attended more public functions, Lyudmila became close friends with the First Lady and ran into FDR multiple times as well. Despite her new friendship, Lyudmila still wished to return to the USSR and fight, but the task of the Soviet delegation was extended, and they continued to raise awareness of their struggle in the United States. She traveled with the First Lady all across the country, and she played a large role in shifting American public opinion.

She delivered powerful speeches with an uncanny ability to generate unforgettable quotes. One of these came during a particularly riveting speech in Chicago: “Gentlemen, I am 25 years old. At the front, I have wiped out 309 Nazi soldiers and officers. Don’t you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding for too long behind my back?

”

Such words had a tremendous impact and were published across the nation. Eventually, Lyudmila finished her job in the United States, setting off with lavish gifts from the First Lady. She briefly visited Canada and was flown to the United Kingdom, where she and her fellow soldiers were greeted with an impressive military welcome. At the press conference, Lyudmila was not asked any insulting questions, and the British journalists conducted themselves quite well.

She and her comrades visited representatives of the British armed forces, and British military technology was demonstrated to them. The three met Churchill and his wife, with Lyudmila talking about her history with the Soviet medical battalions. She was never a fan of Churchill, and this fact did not change after their meeting. On January 5, 1943, the Soviet delegation returned to Moscow.

Soviet authorities were particularly pleased with Lyudmila’s performance, and perhaps because of this, she would not be returning to combat as she hoped. Instead, she was given a promotion and placed into the Red Army High Command reserve. The citizens of the Soviet Union had become somewhat familiar with how Stalin conducted arrests of people under suspicion. So it is easy to imagine what Lieutenant Pavlichenko and her mother, Elena Belova, were thinking when the NKVD came knocking on their door one night.

Lyudmila’s mother was so overcome by fear that her hands trembled with worry. Luckily, Lyudmila was headed for the Kremlin rather than a prison. She had been summoned by Stalin to report the results of her mission to the United States, and she was to inform the Supreme Commander-in-Chief about the leaders she had met and her own military service. Although she was initially extremely nervous talking to him, she eventually became emboldened and requested to be put back into the fighting, to the leader of the USSR himself.

This request confused Stalin, who asked why she would want to return to the front after being heavily wounded multiple times and having developed PTSD. Lieutenant Pavlichenko replied: “There have been many casualties in this war, but somebody has to fight. I want to go back to my comrades in arms. ” This response seemed to make a good impression on Stalin, but he had to deny her wish.

Lyudmila was needed to pass on her priceless knowledge to other snipers. Starting in August 1943, she was trained in the Vystrel course, an intense program for training officers. Upon graduation on October 25, 1943, she was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for her deeds in combat earlier in her career, and she stayed at the institution to teach there. In January 1944, as the absolute victory of the Soviet Union became more and more certain, Lyudmila traveled to her hometown of Kiev to finish her studies, and would return to her son and mother in Moscow.

When the war ended in May 1945, she continued her service in the military as a research assistant in the Navy until she retired in 1958, as a result of old physical and mental wounds worsening over time. After leaving the military, she was elected to the Presidium of the Soviet Committee for War Veterans and continued to be an important figure, testing new military technology and being invited to training sessions. She participated in the development of the SVD rifle along with Vladimir Chelintsev, who was also one of the three members of the Soviet delegation sent to the United States, and Vasily Zaitsev, another legendary sniper credited with killing 225 Nazis in the span of three months. The Dragunov rifle was selected for service in 1962, and for their participation, each of the veterans received a unique combat pistol built exclusively for them.

Lyudmila also served as a role model for Soviet youth, being invited to appear and speak at many events. She would often visit the city of Sevastopol, to see it blossom once again and remember her lost husband and comrades who defended the city and their country all those years ago. Lyudmila Pavlichenko passed away on October 10, 1974, at the age of 58, as a result of a stroke. She is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, an honor shared with Nikita Khrushchev, Anton Chekhov, Boris Yeltsin, and Mstislav Rostropovich.

She will forever be remembered not only as a soldier of immeasurable skill but as a hero who did her part in stopping fascism, serving not just her country but the world with a degree of honor and courage rare even amongst history’s greatest heroes.