This week I decided to dedicate my passion blog to the people of Ukraine as they struggle with the hardships of a war they did not declare. Inspired by their resilience, I began researching some of the incredible women of this country, and stumbled upon Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in the world with a total of 309 kills.

Born in 1916 in a Belaya Tserkov, a large city south of Kiev, Pavlichenko grew up as a tomboy, enjoying the competitive nature of sports and games, largely motivated to prove to the boys in her neighborhood that she was just as good, if not better, than they were at any activity they could think of. When she was 14, her family moved to the capital city of Kiev, where soon after she enrolled into a sharpshooter class, eventually earning a Voroshilov Sharpshooter Badge, both a certificate and a decoration of skilled civil marksman. In 1937 Pavlichenko enrolled at Kiev University with the dream of becoming a history teacher, continuing to improve her sniper skills on the School’s trap team and by taking classes at sniper school. 

During her final year at university, Hitler began his invasion into the Soviet Union. Upon learning this, Pavlichenko immediately went to the enlistment office in Odessa, where the enlistment officers pushed her to become a nurse. But Pavlichenko knew her strengths and quickly proved her marksman skills by snuffing out two Romanian Collaborators, officially joining the Red Army’s 25th Rifle division as a sniper, becoming 1 of 2,000 female snipers to join WWII and only 1 of 500 to survive it. 

Pavlichenko was stationed on the front lines of Odessa, recording 187 kills in the two months she spent there while receiving a promotion to sergeant. While her unit was in fighting Sevastopol starting in October 1941, Pavlichenko raised her kill count even higher, reaching 257 confirmed kills by May 1942 and receiving a second promotion to lieutenant. As she became more deadly, she was sent on more deadly missions, moving from simple sniper jobs to engaging in “sniper duels” with other snipers, one of which lasted 3 days. Pavlichenko famously said that these other snipers always made “one move to many”, and one by one, 36 enemy snipers were added to her confirmed kills list. 

In June 1942 Pavlichenko took shrapnel to the face and was pulled out of battle because the military felt she was too valuable of an asset to be left in and risk further injury or death. At this time, she had a list of bodies 309 names long, earning her the nickname “Lady Death” and several offers from the German Army to join them. At first these were just bribes, with German officers shouting over a loudspeaker, “Lyudmila Pavlichenko, come over to us. We will give you plenty of chocolate and make you a German officer.”. However, these bribes soon became threats, with those same officers saying “If we catch you, we will tear you into 309 pieces and scatter them to the winds!”. Pavlichenko  laughed upon hearing this, and said she was glad that the enemy knew her record with such accuracy. 

For now, this is where we end this blog post. Next week we will look further into her U.S. tour and the misogyny and sexism she faced upon her arrival into this country, something she had never needed to in Ukraine. Until then, remember that for every great shot a man has ever declared, every time they have said that women are incapable of such skill and violence, the person with the most recorded kills in history is a woman. 

Resource

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/lady-death-red-army-lyudmila-pavlichenko