The 1940s saw the Second World War threaten the way the world operated however, most countries kept a particular social order: women worked in factories and stayed well behind the front lines, (the closest one would get to the front line would be as a nurse, whilst men did the fighting and killing. Enter the Soviet Union, a country where egalitarianism was the name of the game; no better example of this is found than in the life and achievements of Lyudmila Pavlichenko.
Lyudmila was a woman who would break the mould of what people thought possible for her sex and show the world that more could be achieved, and you’d better beware throwing stereotypes in her direction!
Lyudmila not only joined the army at a time when it was nearly impossible for women to enlist, but she went on to become one of the Soviet Union’s top snipers.
Early Life
Lyudmila Pavlichenko was born in the village of Bila Tserkva in modern-day Ukraine. Her father, Mikhail Belova, worked for the government while her mother, Elena Trofimovna Belova was a teacher.
Studying at school, Lyudmila was a bit of a tomboy who loved a challenge and was ultra-competitive. When she was just 14 years of age, the family moved to Kiev; it was here that she began shooting.
After one of the neighbourhood boys began boasting what a good shot he was, Lyudmila wanted to prove better. Lyudmila joined a DOSAAF shooting club where she would hone her skills as a sharpshooter.
When she was 16 years of age, to help support the family, Lyudmila Pavlichenko took a job as a grinder in a munitions factory, the same year she met her husband, a doctor named Alexei Pavlichenko. They had one son together, Rostislav (1932–2007). The marriage to Alexei however, didn’t last, and after her separation, she returned to University to study history.
From Student to Sharpshooter
In 1941, German troops poured into the Soviet Union, a move which shook the nation to its core; as the situation deteriorated, citizens across the Union eagerly volunteered to do their part, Pavlichenko was no different, joining in the first wave of recruits.
In the early 1940s, the Soviet Union still had a way to go before it ratified Lenin‘s 1917 speech on woman’s equality:
“Petty housework crushes strangles, stultifies and degrades [the woman], chains her to the kitchen and to the nursery, and wastes her labour on barbarously unproductive, petty, nerve-racking, stultifying and crushing drudgery.”
When a 24-year-old Pavlichenko tried to enlist in the infantry as a sniper, the recruiting officers tried to persuade her to become a nurse. Adamant that she wished to join the infantry, Pavlichenkov pushed, even showing her shooting logs, she was eventually permitted to enlist.
Swapping a Shovel for a Rifle
Due to a shortage of arms, along with most new recruits, Pavlichenko spent the first part of her military service digging trenches and resupplying her comrades.
Until one unfortunate day when one of her compatriots was wounded in action. He passed his Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle to Pavlichenko, who was then able to return fire. It wasn’t until two weeks later when she was able to prove her worth, killing two Romanian soldiers a quarter-mile away.
Odessa, Moldavia, and Sevastopol, there was no stopping Lyudmila Pavlichenko. She was deadly with the rifle, eventually taking the lives of 309 enemy combatants, 36 of whom were also snipers making this tally even more impressive.
Pavlichenko would spend months at the front, surviving injury whilst also ascending through the ranks promoted to sergeant then lieutenant.
The world’s most deadly female sniper earned the nickname the ‘Lady of Death’; along with this fatal moniker, the germans also placed a bounty on her head and even tried to persuade her to switch sides with the lure of better rations and a higher rank.
During the summer of 1942, Pavlichenko’s luck ran out as she was wounded by shrapnel from an enemy mortar. Of course, she was taken off the front to recuperate and for fear that the Soviets new propaganda tool would be killed.
But the adventures of Lyudmila Pavlichenko would not end there!
The US First Lady & the Soviet Sniper
After spending a month in the hospital, Lyudmila would make a full recovery and was undoubtedly eager to get back to the front, although the powers that be had other plans.
Instead of being sent to the front line, Lyudmila was flown to the United States to a different kind of war, a war of words.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko arrived in the United States as part of the Soviet Union’s charm offensive to try and persuade a fence-sitting America that it was time to open up a second front against the Germans.
A straight-talking Pavlichenko was exactly what was needed; not only was she the first Soviet citizen received by a US president and welcomed into the White House, but she would also strike up a friendship with the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.
It was Eleanor Roosevelt who suggested that Pavlichenko tour the States telling her experiences as a soldier on the frontline. As she travelled, it was clear that the press was not ready for an independent female hero; as they continued with narrow-minded sexist questions, Pavlichenko began firing back.
Whilst in Chicago, to try and persuade more men to support the war effort; an emboldened Pavlichenko famously said:
“I am 25 years old, and I have killed 309 fascist occupants by now,” she reportedly told one group in Chicago. “Don’t you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?”
Among many sexist questions, another famed Pavlichenko reply came when someone asked about her lack of nail polish, hairstyles, and whether female Soviet soldiers could wear makeup in battle:
“There is no rule against it,” she replied. “But who has time to think of her shiny nose when a battle is going on?”
There were many more questions, but Pavlichenko handled them cooly and with the same skill she exhibited as a soldier. After touring the US, Pavlichenko also stopped to visit Canada and the United Kingdom, where she was received well by various organisations presenting gifts and money to aid the Soviet war effort.
Upon her return to the Soviet Union, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was promoted to officer. She would not see active service again, instead, she was used to teach and train young snipers heading out to the frontlines.
Life After War
Pavlichenko finished her education at Kiev University and began a career as a historian working as a research assistant in the Soviet Navy.
In 1957, Eleanor Roosevelt would visit the Soviet Union calling at Moscow, she insisted she met her old friend from 15 years earlier, and the two great ladies once again met up.
Along with many a soldier, no matter race, creed or sex, Lyudmila Pavlichenko suffered greatly once the war ended. She had achieved so much, the rank of Major, the Order of Lenin (twice) and the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, but as any soldier will tell you she had also lost so much.
After finishing work for the Soviet Navy, Pavlichenko worked at the Soviet Committee of the Veterans of War. As a veteran, Pavlichenko had post-traumatic stress disorder, drinking heavily, which would contribute to her early death at the age of 58.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko would be laid to rest at Novodevichy Cemetery, where her son would eventually join her.
We leave you with one of Lyudmila Pavlichenko’s most amazing quotes in reply to another interviewee while travelling in the United States:
“I am amazed at the kind of questions put to me by the women press correspondents in Washington. Don’t they know there is a war? They asked me silly questions such as do I use powder and rouge and nail polish, and do I curl my hair? One reporter even criticised the length of the skirt of my uniform, saying that in America, women wear shorter skirts and besides, my uniform made me look fat. This made me angry. I wear my uniform with honour. It has the Order of Lenin on it. It has been covered with blood in battle. It is plain to see that with American women, what is important is whether they wear silk underwear under their uniforms. What the uniform stands for, they have yet to learn.”
Lyudmila Pavlichenko