The beautiful woman who hit her throw: Who is Lyudmila Pavlichenko?

Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who was born in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine on July 12, 1916, went to one of the shooting clubs of the period to take her interest in marksmanship to the next level while she was studying history at the University of Kyiv. Having successfully completed her marksmanship training here, Pavlichenko conveyed that she wanted to join the army voluntarily with a quick decision when she learned that Germany had attacked the Soviet Union in 1941.

Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (12 July 1916 – 10 October 1974) was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II. She is credited with killing 309 soldiers. She served in the Red Army during the siege of Odessa and the siege of Sevastopol, during the early stages of the fighting on the Eastern Front.

The registrar, who saw Pavlichenko for the first time, a very well-groomed, clean-looking, and beautiful woman, was very surprised by this situation and offered her to serve as a nurse in the army instead of a marksman. Pavlichenko, who did not accept this offer at all, said that she wanted to join the army as a sniper by showing her marksmanship certificate. Thereupon, she was given to the 25th Infantry Division of the Red Army and adapted to the army in a very short time. Pavlichenko, one of the 2,000 female snipers in the army, successfully completed her first mission and made a name for herself in the army.

Most Famous Female Snipers

Successfully fulfilling her successive missions, Pavlichenko became the most famous female sniper in the army and was nicknamed Lady Death. It has been recorded that Pavlichenko, who stayed in her duty around Odessa for approximately 2 and a half months, killed 187 German soldiers during the war. As a result of the Germans' domination of Odesa, she was sent to Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula with her unit and supported the war there for 8 months. In May 1942, Pavlichenko neutralized 257 German soldiers. It is known that 36 snipers were among the soldiers killed by Pavlichenko, who was recorded to have killed a total of 309 German soldiers during World War II.

Pavlichenko, who was wounded by mortar fire in June 1942 and had to withdraw from the war due to her growing wound, continued her education after the war, completing her school and continuing her career as a historian. She served as chief research officer in the Soviet Navy for 8 years. After her duty there, she later worked on the Soviet Committee of Veterans of War. Pavlichenko, who died on October 10, 1974, was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.