Hitler’s biggest mistake of WWII that led to the decline of his marauding army was the invasion of Russia. Hitler, like Napoleon, did not negotiate two important factors that would change the course of the war. The terrible Russian winters and the Russians themselves. Russia plunged into the war in which even the village school teachers jumped into action. Many of them were women who fought not in the open, but as snipers who became notorious and deadly in their actions, scoring death after death, shooting Nazi officers, and professing strange but ruthless skill with the sniper rifle. Many of these women became famous heroes of Russia by winning accolades and medals of honor, especially the so-called Lady of Death. Read on to meet 10 of the deadliest Russian snipers in military history.
10. Tanya Baramzina
Born Tatiana Nikolaevna Baramzina, she was a kindergarten teacher before becoming a sniper in the 70th Rifle Division of the Russian Army, 33rd Army. Tanya fought on the Belarusian front and was forced to parachute behind enemy lines as part of a secret mission. Before doing so, she had already scored 16 kills and killed another 20 during her mission. She was finally captured, tortured, and executed. Tanya was posthumously awarded the gold star and was declared a hero of the Soviet Union on March 24, 1945.
9. Nadezhda Kolesnikov
Nadezhda Kolesnikov was a volunteer sniper who served on the Volkhovsky Eastern Front in 1943. She was credited with 19 confirmed kills. Like Kolesnikov, a total of 800,000 female combatants fought with the Russian army as snipers, tank gunners, soldiers, machine guns, and even pilots. Not many of those who saw the action survived, while only 500 survived the war of 2000 enlisted. For her service, Kolesnikov received the medal of courage after the war in Russia.
8. Tania Chernova
Not many will be familiar with this name, but Tania inspired the female sniper character of the same name in the movie “Enemy at the Gates,” which was played by Rachel Weisz, who acted alongside Jude Law. Tania was an American-Russian who traveled to Belarus to get her grandparents out of Russia but they had already been killed by Germans. She later became a sniper in the Russian army joining Hares, a sniper group made up of the famous Vatsily Zaytsev, who was also portrayed as a character in the same movie and played by Jude Law. Tania is credited with 24 deaths before being wounded in the abdomen by a landmine. She then was taken to Tashkent, where she spent considerable time in recovery. Fortunately, Tania survived the war.
7. Ziba Ganiyeva
Ziba Ganiyeva was one of the most charismatic figures in the Russian army, having been a Russian celebrity and film actress in Azerbaijan before the war. Geneva fought in the 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division of the Soviet Army. She was a brave heart who crossed enemy lines an impressive 16 times and killed 21 German soldiers. She actively participated in the Battle of Moscow and was seriously injured. Her injuries prevented her from rejoining the war, where she spent 11 months recovering in the hospital. Geneva was awarded the Red Order Combat and the Red Star-Banner.
6. Roza Shanina
She was dubbed the Invisible Terror of East Prussia and entered the war before she was 20 years old. Roza Shanina, born on April 3, 1924, in the Russian town of Yedma, wrote to Stalin twice asking that she be allowed to fight with a battalion or reconnaissance company. She was the first female sniper to receive the Order of Glory and fought in the famous Battle of Vilnius. Roza Shanina scored 59 kills but did not survive the war. In an attempt to save a wounded Russian officer, she was fatally wounded by shrapnel that ripped open her chest and gutted her. She died the next day, January 27, 1945.
5. Lubya Makarova
Guard Sergeant Lubya Makarova was one of the 500 lucky ones who survived the war. Fighting in the 3rd Shock Army, she was famous for her active role on the 2nd Baltic Front and the Kalnin Front. Makarova scored 84 kills and returned to her hometown of Perm Russia as a war hero. For her service to her country, Makarova received the Order of Glory, 2nd and 3rd class.
4. Klavdiya Kalugina
Klavdiya Kalugina was one of the youngest soldiers and the youngest sniper in the Red Army. He entered the war when he was only 17 years old. He began his war career working in a munitions factory, but soon entered sniper school and was later sent to the Belarusian 3rd Front. Kalugina fought in Poland and was later sent to fight in the Battle of Leningrad, where she helped defend the city against the Germans. She was dead in her abilities where she scored 257 massive kills. Kalugina survived after staying in Leningrad until the end of the war.
3. Nina Lobkovskaya
Nina Lobkovskaya joined the Russian Army after losing her father in the war in 1942. Nina served in the 3rd Russian Shock Army, where she achieved the rank of Lieutenant. She survived the war even seeing action at the Battle of Berlin in 1945, where she commanded an entire company of 100 snipers. Nina is credited with 89 deaths.
2. Nina Pavlovna Petrova
Nina Pavlovna Petrova also known as “Mama Nina” and may well have been the oldest Russian sniper of WWII. She was born in 1893 and was already 48 years old when she joined the war. After joining sniper school, Nina was sent to the 21st Guards Rifle Division and saw active sniper duty. Petrova was credited with the deaths of 122 enemy soldiers and although she survived the war, she died in a tragic car accident just seven days after the war had ended. She was 53 years old.
1. Lyudmila Pavlichenko
Lyudmila Pavlichencko, born in 1916 in Ukraine, was by far the most famous of the Russian snipers nicknamed “The Lady of Death.” Before the war, Pavlichenko was a college student and an amateur sniper. After attending sniper school at age 24, she was assigned to the 25th Chapayev Rifle Division of the Red Army. Pavlichecnko was perhaps the most successful sniper in the history of the war, where she fought in Sevastopol on the Crimean border and in Odessa. She scored the highest number of kills with 309, including 29 enemy snipers. Pavlichenko survived the war after being removed from active duty due to injuries sustained from mortar fire. She was awarded the Gold Star for The Hero of the Soviet Union, where the country even portrayed her with her face on a postage stamp.
