Her aptitude with the Rifle earned her the sobriquet of ‘Lady Death’. To her enemies, to Adolph Hitler’s men, she was the Russian bitch from hell. Such was her formidable reputation and fear that Germans, at one stage, desperate to stop her, went on air repeatedly, blaring the following radio messages: “Lyudmila Pavlichenko, come over to us. We will give you plenty of chocolate and make you a German officer.”
Women’s domain?
Are women less equipped than men, even in certain situations, say as a soldier or an army general? Feminists across the globe will seriously dispute such a notion, dismissing it as an overplay of an overconfident and preconditioned masculine mind set. Many others will cite arguments ranging from biological diversity to emotional architecture of a woman’s mind to counter any claims of unqualified equality of sexes.
There is one esoteric area of extreme expertise and specialization, usually taken to belong to man’s domain, where statistically women have fared consistently better than men. This relates to the rare and exceptional skills of shooting by stealth. This exclusive area that demands razor sharp reflexes and a firm and steady focus in benumbing, nerve-wracking situations belongs to the world of sniping.
Snipers are special. They are exceptional soldiers who have in them an extraordinary combination of shooting skill, cunning, presence of mind; and patience. A single sniper in the right place at the right time can change the course of battle, even in the face of overwhelming odds, military history tells us.
Sharpshooter Women
Most successful snipers have been women. Klavdiya Kalugina (28), Tatyana Baramzina (36), Mariya Polivanova(unknown), Roza Shanina (59), Lidiya Gudovantseva (76), Nina Lobkovskaya (89), Aliya Moldagulova (91), Nina Petrova (122), Natalya Kovshova (167), and Lyudmila Pavlichenko (309). These are the names of the ten deadliest women snipers of the world and the numbers mentioned against their names in parentheses, are the number of trophies they bagged in their illustrious careers as Army Snipers. Obviously they are all Russians, and why not? Because Russia specifically groomed and trained women in the science, art and skill of sharp-shooting as snipers. The systematic way in which Russian Red Army raised a whole cohort of women snipers, remains a high point of the ingenuity and imagination of Russian Generals.
One of 2,000 female snipers in the Red Army, Pavlichenko’s tally of confirmed kills was 309. Her kills notably also included some of the most accomplished and feared snipers from the enemy camp, which were no less than 36.
The Beginning
Born Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko, at Bila Tsekva, Ukraine, she was a sniper by choice. It was a career that she had always coveted; due in a great measure, to her love and passion for sharpshooting. After a neighbour’s son boasted of his shooting ability Pavlichenko “set out to show a girl could do as well.” At the time she was married, a mother of a baby and working as a grinder in the Kiev Arsenal Factory, the incident encouraged her to respond to the call to the patriotic Russians under ‘Operation Barbarossa’, where she volunteered for military service in 1941. Pavlichenko was assigned the job of a nurse in the 25th Rifle Division but instead insisted on being given sniper duty. By her own account, the commanders relented when she passed an impromptu “audition”. At a hill near Odessa that the Russians were defending, Pavlichenko was handed a rifle with a telescopic sight and told to shoot at two distant Romanians who were collaborating with the Germans. “When I picked off the two, I was accepted,” she later confided.
‘I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascists’
Pavlichenko first saw action at Belyayevka, on the Eastern Front, and within days of her arrival made her first two kills. A few weeks later, she was sent to Odessa, where she bagged an astounding 187 trophies in less than three months. Her stay in the army was unusually short as she sustained a severe wound by mortar fire in June, 1942. But by then she had already written history having 309 confirmed kills. She was made a Lieutenant in the Red Army, perhaps the only woman to be given this rank in such a short period of time.
A seriously wounded Pavlichenko was withdrawn from active combat because of her growing status. She was then sent to America to enlist support for a “second front” in Europe, to divide German forces and relieve pressure on Soviet troops. She was the first Soviet citizen welcomed at the White House. The legendary FDR was so taken by her heroics that he invited her to go on a tour of 43 cities to tell Americans of her experiences as a woman in combat. In Chicago she told a large crowd: “I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascists. Gentlemen, don’t you think that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?”
Asked how she felt about killing, Pavlichenko said: “Every German who remains alive will kill women, children and old folks. Dead Germans are harmless. Therefore, if I kill a German, I am saving lives.”
Her patriotic fervour matched by her ferocious aggression and unequalled combativeness has made her the deadliest female sniper in history, as also the most decorated women soldiers of all time; earning the Order of Lenin (twice) and the title, “Hero of the Soviet Union.” On how she felt credited with such great distinction, she famously said “The only feeling I have is the great satisfaction a hunter feels who has killed a beast of prey?”
After the war she completed her education as a historian at Kiev University and became a research assistant for the Soviet navy.
She died on 10 October, 1974, sadly not in combat but due to a stroke. She was only 58 then and was relishing her career as a historian at Kiev.
Women have often been neglected as major contributors to the history of the world either through commission or distortion. It’s a delight for us to have taken on the challenge to unearth these overlooked gems and keep relevant the stories of amazing women in history.
The author was the former Information and Broadcasting Secretary, GOI. Mr. Uday Kumar Varma, serves as an esteemed jury member on the SABERA The Social and Business Enterprise Responsible Awards 2021 Jury Board.
This article is second in the series of women who have excelled in there area of passion . The first being on activist Emmeline Pankhurst from England.
