Lyubov pavlichenko sniper biography. Women snipers of the Great Patriotic War

13.10.2019

Word to readers

Hero Soviet Union L.M. Pavlichenko is the only female sniper whose personal account reaches 309 destroyed enemy soldiers and officers. She is one of the most famous PRIVATE participants in the Second World War in our country and in the world. In 1942–1945 more than a hundred thousand leaflets with her portrait were distributed on the Soviet-German front (and Lyudmila Mikhailovna was beautiful woman) and the call: “Beat the enemy without a miss!” After her death in 1974, the name of Lyudmila Pavlichenko was given to the vessel of the USSR Ministry of Fisheries, school number 3 in the city of Belaya Tserkov, Kiev region, where she studied from the first to the seventh grade, one of the streets in the center of Sevastopol.

A complete and authentic biography of the heroine reads like a fascinating novel.

There are tragic pages in it, because Pavlichenko, having joined the Red Army as a volunteer on June 26, 1941, together with her 54th rifle regiment, made a difficult retreat from the western borders to Odessa. There are heroic pages: during the defense of this city, she destroyed 187 fascists in two months. The defense of Sevastopol added glory to the best sniper of the 25th Chapaev Rifle Division, since now her personal account has increased to 309 killed enemies. But there are also lyrical pages. In the war, Lyudmila met her great love. A brave fellow soldier, junior lieutenant Alexei Arkadyevich Kitsenko became her husband.

By decision of I.V. Stalin in August 1942, a Komsomol youth delegation consisting of N. Krasavchenko, V. Pchelintsev and L. Pavlichenko flew to the United States to participate in the work of the World Student Assembly. Komsomol members were supposed to agitate for the speedy opening of a second front in Western Europe ...

Despite the ban, Pavlichenko kept a diary during the war. She sometimes made very short notes in it. And not every day the sniper managed to pick up a pencil or pen. The fighting in Sevastopol was distinguished by stubbornness and bitterness.

Having retired in 1953 with the rank of major of the Navy coastal service, Lyudmila Mikhailovna remembered her front-line records. Trained as a historian, she took her memoirs seriously and believed that publication would require them. long work in libraries and archives. She took the first step towards this in 1958, when, commissioned by Gospolitizdat, she wrote a small documentary brochure (72 pages) “Heroic Reality. Defense of Sevastopol”, and then a number of articles for various collections and magazines. But these were not memories of the sniper service, but rather a generalized story about the main events that unfolded at the forefront and in the rear of the Sevastopol defensive region from October 1941 to July 1942.

After these publications, L.M. Pavlichenko was accepted into the Union of Journalists of the USSR in 1964, where she became the secretary of the military history section of its Moscow branch.

Close communication with colleagues in the pen, active participation in the military-patriotic education of the younger generation led her to the idea that a book written by a senior sergeant, commander of a platoon of super-accurate shooters with a reliable story about many details and details of the infantry service, may be of interest to the modern reader. .

By the end of the 60s, not only the memoirs of major military leaders about successful operations began to appear. Soviet army in 1944 and 1945, but also the true stories of commanders and political workers of the Red Army about the difficult, even tragic beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Among these books are the memoirs of I.I. Azarov “Besieged Odessa” (M.: Voenizdat, 1966), collection “At the Black Sea strongholds” (M.: Voenizdat, 1967), where the former commander of the 25th Chapaev division T.K. Kolomiets and colleague L.M. Pavlichenko, former Komsomol organizer of the 54th regiment Ya.Ya. Vaskovsky, memoirs of an ordinary participant in the Odessa defense N.M. Aleshchenko "They defended Odessa" (M.: publishing house DOSAAF, 1970).

After reading them, Lyudmila Mikhailovna set to work.

Now she wanted to write specifically about the service of a sniper at the front and in detail about everything connected with this military profession: training methods, tactics on the battlefield, and especially weapons, which she knew very well and loved very much. In the 1940s and 1950s, such information was not allowed to be disclosed. However, without it, the story of the struggle of super-sharp shooters with the enemy would be incomplete. Keeping in mind the previous instructions, Pavlichenko carefully selected the material, looking for the best literary form for her manuscript. It became clear to her that the twenty years that had passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War were in no way conducive to the speedy implementation of the plan. Much was remembered with difficulty, many of the records were lost. In addition, she has already donated many valuable documents and photographs from her archive, as well as personal belongings, to museums: to the Central Museum of the USSR Armed Forces in Moscow and to the State Museum of Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol.

Unfortunately, a severe long-term illness prevented the famous heroine from completing the work on time and seeing the sniper's memoirs published. Fragments of this manuscript have been preserved thanks to the efforts of Lyubov Davydovna Krasheninnikova-Pavlichenko, the widow of Ludmila Mikhailovna's son Rostislav Alekseevich Pavlichenko.

Begunova A.I.,

compiler

Chapter 1
factory walls

In the summer of 1932, a significant change took place in the life of our family. From the provincial town of Boguslav, which lies in the south of the Kiev region, we moved to the capital of Ukraine and settled in a service apartment provided to my father, Mikhail Ivanovich Belov. He, being an employee of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), received a position in the central apparatus of this department as a reward for the conscientious performance of his duties.

He was a solid, strict man, devoted to service. Starting from a young age as a mechanic at a large factory, he visited the fronts of the First World War, joined the ranks Communist Party- then it was called the RSDLP (b), - participated in the revolutionary events in Petrograd, then served as a regimental commissar in the 24th Samara-Simbirsk "Iron" division, fought with the White Guard detachments of Kolchak in the Middle Volga, Southern Urals. Demobilized from the Red Army in 1923 at the age of 28. But he retained his attachment to military uniform until the end of his days, and for the most part we saw him in the same clothes: a gabardine jacket of a khaki color with a turn-down collar, with the Order of the Red Banner on his chest, dark blue breeches and chrome officer's boots.

It is natural that the last word in case of family disputes - if there were any - it remained with the pope. But my kind mother Elena Trofimovna Belova, a graduate of the women's gymnasium in the city of Vladimir, knew how to soften her father's harsh temper. She was a beautiful woman with a lithe, chiseled figure, with lush dark brown hair and brown eyes that illuminated her face with some unusual light.

She knew foreign languages well and taught them at school. The students loved her. Turning the lesson into a game, my mother achieved excellent memorization of all European, strange words for the Russian ear. Her children not only read well, but also spoke.

She worked with us just as persistently: my older sister Valentina and me. Thanks to her, we got acquainted early with the Russian classical literature, because the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Kuprin were in our home library. My sister, due to her soft, dreamy nature, turned out to be more receptive to literary images. I was attracted by history, more precisely, the military past of our great country.

Before Boguslav, we lived for several years in the city of Belaya Tserkov, Kiev region. There I studied at school number 3, where my childhood and adolescence passed carelessly. We formed a friendly company on Privokzalnaya Street. We played "Cossacks-robbers", in the summer we rode punts on the local river Ros, walked in an old and very beautiful park"Alexandria", in the autumn they raided the surrounding gardens. I led the gang of teenagers because I was the best at shooting from a slingshot, I ran faster than anyone, I swam well and I was never afraid to start a fight, first hitting the offender with my fist on the cheekbone.

Yard entertainment ended as soon as I was fifteen years old. And ended suddenly, in one day. Looking back, I could compare it to the end of the world, to self-imposed blindness, to loss of reason. That was my first, school love. The memory of her remained with me for the rest of my life in the form of the name of this person - PAVLICHENKO.

Fortunately, my son Rostislav is not at all like his father. He has a kind, calm disposition and an appearance characteristic of members of our family: brown eyes, lush dark hair, tall stature, strong physique. Still, he belongs precisely to the WHITE family and worthily continues our traditions of serving the Fatherland. Slava graduated with honors from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University and the Higher School of the KGB. He honorably bears the title of a Soviet officer. I'm proud of them...

In a new place in Kiev, we settled down quite quickly, gradually began to get used to the big and noisy capital city. We didn't see much of my father; he stayed late at work. Therefore, our intimate conversations with him usually took place in the kitchen after dinner. Mom put a samovar on the table, and over a cup of tea we could discuss any topic with our parents, ask them any questions. And so soon the main conversation took place.

“What are you going to do now, dear children?” Dad asked us as he slowly sipped his hot tea.

“We don’t know yet,” Valentina was the first to answer by right of precedence.

“You should think about work,” he said.

- What job? my sister was surprised.

- About good work, in good location with a good salary.

“But, dad,” I objected, “I only have seven grades of education, I want to study further.

“It’s never too late to study, Lyudmila,” my father said firmly. - But to start a working biography, and - with the correct entry in the questionnaire - now is the time. Moreover, I have already agreed that they will take you.

– Where is it? My sister pursed her lips capriciously.

- At the Arsenal plant ...

If you move from the Askold's Grave park, then the wide water surface of the Dnieper will stretch to the left, and the straight and not too long Arsenalnaya Street will begin to the right (in 1941 it was renamed Moskovskaya. - Note. comp.). At the beginning of the street there is a building of a very impressive appearance. These are the Arsenal workshops built under Emperor Nicholas I. They say that the king himself laid the first brick in their foundation. The walls turned out to be two meters thick, two stories high and the color of the bricks was light yellow, which is why the locals began to call the whole structure “porcelain”.

However, neither the workshops nor the factory adjoining them had anything to do with fine clay products. It was founded by order of Empress Catherine the Great and was built for a long time: from 1784 to 1803. They made guns, carriages, guns, bayonets, sabers, broadswords, various military equipment on it.

V Soviet time a powerful defense enterprise also mastered the production of products needed for the national economy: plows, locks, steam-horse carts, equipment for mills and sugar factories. The "arsenal" workers worked with full dedication of their forces and in 1923 they were awarded an award from the government of Ukraine - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

I liked the factory building at first sight. It strongly resembled a fortress. Rectangular in shape (168 × 135 m), with a large courtyard, with a tower, with rounded outer walls, where the first tier was decorated with large plank rustication, this structure seemed to have descended from an ancient battle engraving. All that was missing was a ditch under the walls, a drawbridge across it, and heavy gates guarded by warriors in shining armor.

After completing some formalities (for example, a non-disclosure of state secrets) my sister and I were assigned to the garrison of this “fortress”. Valentina was a rater, since she was already eighteen and she had a certificate of secondary education. Me - a laborer due to my infancy (I was only 16) and the lack of any professional skills.

Six months was enough for me to enter the rhythm of factory life and make friends with the factory workers themselves. I was accepted into the Komsomol. In May 1934, I moved to a turning shop, where I stayed as an apprentice for about a month, then received the right to independent work and soon reached the qualification of a turner of the sixth category.

It was an interesting time.

Arsenal were changing right before our eyes. New, already domestic machines were delivered, more advanced equipment was installed, new production facilities were put into operation, and old premises were reconstructed. Factory people, seeing the efforts of the authorities aimed at the growth of industry, responded to it with hard work. By the way, the prices also grew noticeably, and yet all the machine operators of our workshop worked on a piece-rate basis.

I didn't have to complain either. I had a screw-cutting lathe with a speed control box "DIP300" ("Let's catch up and overtake the capitalist countries"), produced by the Moscow plant "Red Proletarian" in 1933. It was intended for processing cylindrical, conical and complex surfaces, not only external, but also internal.

Here's what I've been processing.

As I recall now, for the most part - shaft blanks for all kinds of gearboxes. In one pass of the cutter, she removed from 0.5 mm to 3 mm (and more) of metal. The cutting speed was chosen depending on the hardness of the material and the tool life. We mainly used cutters from high carbon steel. Although there were others - with soldered plates made of superhard alloys of tungsten and titanium.

The bluish-violet metal shavings curling from under the cutter still seem incredibly beautiful to me. Hard as metal is, it lends itself to human strength. You just need to invent such a cunning machine ...

Our plant, uniting people in labor, provided them with the opportunity to properly spend their free time. True, the factory club did not differ in bright and rich design. It was small, even cramped. However, its premises were enough for various circles: the theatrical "Blue Blouse", the art studio, where they taught drawing, cutting and sewing, very useful for women, gliding and shooting. In the assembly hall, wonderful festive evenings “Meeting of Three Generations” were regularly held, at which veterans of the revolution and civil war, young production workers who exceeded the norms by 50 percent or more.

At first, my friend and I - she persuaded me - went to the glider circle. A lot was written about aviation and the exploits of aviators in the newspapers. So we enthusiastically attended the theoretical classes and concentratedly took notes from the lectures of the gallant lieutenant of the Air Force on wing lift. However, the very first flight with an instructor cooled my ardor. When the grass field of the airfield quickly rushed towards me and then suddenly went down somewhere, my head began to spin, nausea rose up in my throat. “So the air is not my element,” I thought. “I am a purely earthly person and must rely on solid ground…”

Fyodor Kushchenko, the instructor of the factory shooting circle, worked in our shop and constantly agitated young people, inviting them to go to the shooting range. He himself had recently served his military service in the Red Army, got carried away with bullet shooting there and assured that there was something bewitching in the flight of a bullet and its hitting the target.

The guy is nice and charming, Fedya with similar reasoning rolled up to me. However, I remembered flying on a glider, which pretty much shook my faith in my own abilities, although in my youth - what to hide! They seem to be limitless. In addition, I considered Kushchenko's enticing speeches to be ordinary red tape. My small but harsh life experience suggested that you should always be on your guard with male representatives.

Once (it was at a Komsomol meeting) I got tired of listening to his tales. I answered Fedor in an ironic tone. The guys sitting around appreciated my joke and started laughing out loud. Our Komsomol organizer at that moment was reading a rather boring report on the work of the members of the Komsomol for the early implementation of the workshop quarterly plan. He took this laughter personally and for some reason became very angry. There was a verbal skirmish between him and some Komsomol members present in the hall. It used colorful epithets and unexpected comparisons. In the end, the Komsomol organizer put me and Kushchenko out the door as the instigators of the scandal.

Stunned by such a ending, Fedor and I moved towards the exit. The working day was already over, our steps resounded in the deserted corridor. Suddenly Kushchenko said:

“Still, you need to calm down.

“I have to,” I agreed.

- Then let's go to the shooting range, shoot.

Do you think this will help?

- Certainly. Shooting is an activity for calm people. Although innate abilities are also needed.

What other abilities? I couldn't resist the sarcastic question.

- The real ones. Say, an excellent eye or an accurate sense of a weapon, ”he answered, jingling a bunch of keys, extracted from the pocket of a leather jacket.

The shooting gallery was located in a protected factory area adjacent to the main building. It must have been a warehouse once, a squat, long building with barred windows almost under the roof. From the height of my current knowledge, I can say that the Arsenal shooting range in the mid-30s met all the necessary standards. There was a room with tables, chairs and school board on the wall for theoretical studies, a small armory with lockable cabinets for rifles and pistols, a safe for storing ammunition, a firing line that allowed shooting from a stop, from a knee, while standing, lying (on mats). Thick wooden shields with targets were twenty-five meters away from him.

Fedor opened one of the cabinets and took out a brand new gun, not so long, a little over a meter (more precisely, 111 cm), but with a massive birch stock and a thick barrel. This product of the Tula Arms Plant was known in the USSR under the name "TOZ-8". It was produced from 1932 to 1946 and, together with the TOZ-8M modification, it seems that about a million pieces were produced. A reliable, easy-to-use small-caliber single-shot bolt-action rifle chambered for 5.6 × 16 mm rimfire did a good job not only for athletes, but also for hunters.

I am writing about it with a warm feeling, because with TOZ-8 my passion for bullet shooting began, my universities as a super-sharp shooter ...

There are detailed instructions that tell how to handle firearms. Of course, Kushchenko could talk about them first. However, he acted differently. He just handed the rifle to me and said:

- Meet me!

Honestly, I thought that “firearms” were much heavier and difficult to hold in my hands. But this gun did not pull even three and a half kilograms. With my habit of installing sometimes very bulky parts for processing on the machine, I didn’t even have to make an effort to lift it. The coldish hardness of the metal on its barrel and receiver was also pleasant. The bolt handle, bent down, said that the designers took care of the convenience for the person who owns this weapon.

First of all, Fedor offered to check the “fitness of the rifle”, to find out if it is suitable for me. Everything worked out well here. The back of the butt rested against the shoulder cavity, with a brush right hand I loosely gripped the neck of the stock and placed my index finger—and my fingers are long—on the trigger between the first and second knuckles. It remains, tilting your head to the right, press your cheek against the comb of the butt and look at the front sight with your open right eye. It passed exactly in the middle of the aiming bar and was visible exactly to its full size.

“Now you can shoot,” Fyodor said.

- What about ammo?

- One minute, - the instructor took the rifle from me, loaded it and aimed the barrel at the target. There was a loud sound, as if a rod had been lashed against an iron sheet. I flinched in surprise. Kushchenko smiled:

- Well, it's out of habit. Try it, you will succeed...

The rifle was back in my hands. Diligently repeating all the techniques of "attaching", I fired the first shot. "Small" (as we called "TOZ-8") had a small impact. In addition, on the advice of Fyodor, I pressed her tightly to my shoulder, so that no discomfort did not experience. Kushchenko allowed me to shoot three more times, and then went to look at the target. He brought this sheet of paper with black circles to the firing line, where I was waiting for him not without excitement, looked at me carefully and said:

For a beginner, it's amazing. It is clear that the ability is there.

- Is it innate? For some reason I wanted to joke.

- That's for sure - my first coach was serious. Never before have I seen Fedya Kushchenko so serious...

Classes in our shooting club were held once a week, on Saturdays.

They started by studying in detail the device of a small-caliber rifle, disassembling and assembling the bolt, getting used to carefully looking after the weapon: cleaning, lubricating. In a room with a black chalkboard, we had classes that taught the basics of ballistics. So, to my great surprise, I found out that the bullet does not fly to the target in a straight line, but because of the inertia of motion, the effect of gravity and air resistance on it, it describes an arc, and even rotates at the same time.

We also had lectures on the history of "firearms". It began in the 14th century with a matchlock gun, when the development of technology for the first time made it possible to use the metal properties of gunpowder, then guns with a flintlock and then with a capsule lock appeared and became widespread. But a truly revolutionary coup happened at the end of the 19th century: magazine rifles appeared with rifling in the barrel and longitudinally sliding bolts, which contributed to quick loading, increased range and accuracy of the shot.

In general, hand firearms seem to me to be the most perfect creation of the mind and human hands. When it was created, the latest inventions were always used. The technological solutions necessary for its manufacture were quickly perfected and brought to production, measured in thousands and millions of pieces. In the most successful samples that have earned world recognition, engineering genius finds its embodiment in an ideal, finished external form. After all, "firearms" are in their own way ... beautiful. They are pleasant to take in hand, it is convenient to use them. They deserved the love of the people who went with them to the war, incredible in its cruelty. Some (the same three-line Mosin rifle, the Shpagin submachine gun, the Degtyarev light machine gun, the Tulsky, Tokarev pistol) even became symbols of the era...

However, most of all my friends loved shooting.

We practiced at the shooting range, hitting targets from a standing position, lying down, from a stop, from a knee using a belt passed under the left arm. "Small" had only an open sector sight with a movable clamp and at the end of the barrel - a cylindrical front sight with an elongated base. With such a simplicity of the device, it nevertheless helped to develop the basic skills of the shooter: quick aiming, smooth trigger pull, holding the gun in the correct position, without “dumping” it to the left or right. With an initial bullet speed of 310 meters per second, the TOZ-8 shot range reached 1200–1600 meters, but this did not matter in the shooting range.

When spring came, we began to go to the shooting range outside the city and train to pass the standards for the Voroshilovsky shooter badge of the second stage, and they included not only marksmanship, but also orienteering, grenade throwing, physical training (running, jumping, push ups). We successfully fulfilled these standards and then took part in the Osoaviakhim city shooting competitions.

I want to note that our circle was only one of several hundred divisions in the structure of the Society for the Promotion of Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction, or Osoaviakhim. This mass voluntary public military-patriotic organization appeared in our country in 1927 and played a big role in preparing young men and women for military service. It numbered about 14 million people who studied in the primary organizations of this society, mastering military specialties from pilots and paratroopers to shooters, machine gunners, drivers of vehicles, trainers of service dogs.

I placed the certificate of honor earned at the Osoaviakhim competitions in a frame under glass and proudly hung it on the wall in my room with Valentina. Neither my sister nor my parents took my passion for shooting seriously. During our home conversations, they liked to play a joke on my passion for weapons. But I couldn’t clearly explain to them what kind of force attracts me to a shooting gallery or a shooting range, what is attractive in an object equipped with a metal barrel, a wooden butt, a bolt, a trigger and a front sight, why it is so interesting to control the movement of a bullet to a target ...

At the end of 1935, on a Komsomol voucher, I got into a two-week course for draftsmen and copyists, graduated with honors and began working in a machine shop as a senior draftsman. I liked this job. Of course, it was different from the work of a lathe operator, but it also required concentration and accuracy. Machine tools hummed behind the wall, and we, in our bureau, in silence, among drawing boards and paper rolls, were engaged in reconciling drawings, preparing them for transfer to production workers. Relations in the team were warm. My passion for bullet shooting was received with understanding here ...

I am very grateful to the Arsenal plant.

After spending almost four years within its walls, I received two specialties, got used to working at a defense industry enterprise, where there was a paramilitary discipline, matured, I felt like a person capable of being aware of my intentions and actions, achieving my goal. The factory Komsomol organization also helped me move on to a new stage in my life: in the spring of 1935, I received a referral to the workers' faculty at the Kiev state university. Then another year she worked in a turning shop and studied in the evenings. Then she successfully passed the exams and in September 1936 became the owner of a student card of the Faculty of History of KSU. Thus, my childhood dream came true. True, in our course I was probably the oldest of the students.

From a distance of seven decades, wartime events are perceived and interpreted by many in a rather peculiar way. One Russian publication in the year of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in a selection of photographs of all kinds of maniacs and serial killers posted a group portrait of Soviet female snipers, indicating that during the years of the war they killed several hundred people in total.

Journalists who grew up in the warmth and bliss of peacetime apparently do not see the difference between murderers and those who took up arms to defend their homeland.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper of the Second World War, she first encountered such a misunderstanding during a visit to the United States, where she was nicknamed nothing more than "Lady Death".

But sensationally avid American reporters, who expected to see a “killing machine” in front of them in a female guise, found that they were facing an ordinary young woman who had terrible trials that failed to break her will ...

Student, Komsomol member, beauty ...

Hero of the Great Patriotic War sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko. 1942 Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Ivanov

She was born on July 12, 1916 in the city of Belaya Tserkov in the Kiev province. ordinary life changed the first love, which ended in early marriage, and the birth of a son, Rostislav, who was born when Lyuda was only 16 years old.

Although Lyudmila got married, this did not save her from gossip. As a result, the family moved to Kiev.

As often happens, the early marriage quickly fell apart. Bearing the surname Belova as a girl, after the divorce, Lyudmila retained the surname Pavlichenko - it was under her that the whole world recognized her, without exaggeration.

The status of a single mother at such a tender age did not frighten Lyuda - after the ninth grade she began to study at night school, while simultaneously working as a grinder at the Arsenal plant in Kiev.

Relatives and friends helped raise little Rostislav.

In 1937, Lyudmila Pavlichenko entered the Faculty of History of Taras Shevchenko Kiev State University. Like most students of the anxious pre-war period, Luda was preparing, “if there is war tomorrow”, to fight for the Motherland. The girl was engaged in shooting sports, showing very good results.

Front instead of diploma

In the summer of 1941, a fourth-year student, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, underwent undergraduate practice at scientific library in Odessa. The theme of the future diploma has already been chosen - the reunification of Ukraine with Russia.

When the war began, Luda immediately went to the draft board, presented documents about her shooting training, and asked to be sent to the front.

And again the template of the modern perception of life cracks: “How could she, a mother, leave her son and go to war?”

The perception of the surrounding reality among the Soviet people, who in June 1941 stood in the way of the Nazi hordes, was different - in order to save their children, you need to save the Motherland. And in order to save the Motherland, it is necessary to kill the Nazis, and it is impossible to shift this burden onto someone else's shoulders.

The front rolled east with terrifying speed, and the fighter of the 25th Chapaev Rifle Division, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, very soon had to fight the Nazis and their allies, the Romanians, on the outskirts of Odessa, where she had recently been engaged in scientific work.

Hero of the Soviet Union sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko and English actor Laurence Olivier in the film "Chernomortsy". 1942

She instilled fear in the enemies

In one of her first battles, she replaced the deceased platoon commander, she was shell-shocked by a shell that exploded nearby, but she did not leave the battlefield and generally refused to go to the hospital.

Pre-war shooting skills came in handy in the war - Lyudmila became a sniper. She had excellent hearing, amazing eyesight and well-developed intuition - all these qualities are priceless for a sniper.

The offensive of the Nazis on Odessa was so swift that they did not have time to sufficiently prepare the defense of the city from the land. They fought with everything they could - they welded sheets of iron onto tractors, turning them into a kind of tanks, used bottles with a combustible mixture instead of grenades. The lack of weapons reached the point that detachments of workers, recapturing positions from the Germans and Romanians, went to the enemy with sapper shovels, exterminating the invaders in bloody hand-to-hand fights.

In this desperate situation, sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko became an inspiration for those who lost hope and lost heart. She replenished the account of killed enemies almost daily.

At first, she set herself the task of killing 100 fascists. With that plan in place, I moved on.

From August to October 1941, on the outskirts of Odessa, she destroyed 187 enemy soldiers and officers.

The Soviet press wrote about her exploits, and on the other side of the front they were really afraid of her. There were rumors that she could hear rustlings at a distance of half a kilometer, that she was able to sneak up to the very German trenches, shoot a dozen people at a time, and escape unnoticed.

Fear, of course, has big eyes, but the fact remains: the enemy failed to destroy the elusive Pavlichenko in Odessa.

Hero of the Soviet Union sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko (third from right) among workers at a small arms factory in Liverpool. 1942 Photo: RIA Novosti

A moment of happiness on the edge of eternity

Something happened in Sevastopol that would never have happened to a cold-blooded "killing machine" - Lyudmila fell in love. Ensign Leonid Kutsenko was her partner in the sniper war, in duels with the Nazi snipers. In December 1941, Lyuda was wounded, and Leonid pulled her out of the fire.

War is not the best place for love. But times are not chosen. Lyuda Pavlichenko was 25 years old, and the thirst for life was desperately arguing with death triumphing around. In the midst of the fighting, they applied for marriage registration.

Their happiness will be short-lived. During the next sortie of snipers, the Germans will find their position and cover it with mortar fire. Leonid's arm was torn off, and now Lyuda pulled him out from under the fire. But the wounds were too severe - a few days later he died in the hospital in her arms.

This happened in March 1942. By that time, Lyudmila Pavlichenko's personal account had 259 destroyed Nazis.

Hero of the Soviet Union sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Cambridge. 1942 Photo: RIA Novosti

duel of snipers

After the death of Leonid, her hands began to tremble, which is unacceptable for a sniper. But no one dared to demand composure from her.

Luda coped with herself, and at the meeting of the best snipers she announced that she was under an obligation to bring the number of killed Nazis to 300.

To avenge the fascists for Lenya, for the dead comrades, for her warped youth - that was her goal in those terrible months of the spring of 1942.

For her, the Nazis were a real hunt. Selected Wehrmacht snipers were thrown against Pavlichenko. In one of these duels, which lasted for a whole day, Luda, through the scope, saw the eyes of her opponent, realizing that he also saw her. But the shot of the Soviet sniper sounded earlier.

When Luda got close to his position, she found at the defeated enemy notebook where he recorded his victories. By the time he lost to a Russian woman, the Nazi, who started the war back in France, had more than 400 killed soldiers and officers on his account.

According to some reports, 36 Nazi snipers entered into a duel with Pavlichenko at different times. They all lost.

Hero of the Soviet Union, former sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko signing autographs for the participants of the Red Pathfinders rally. Photo: RIA Novosti / Khlansky

Evacuation

Shortly before the fall of Sevastopol, in June 1942, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was seriously wounded. She was evacuated by sea. Thanks to this, she escaped the tragic fate of several tens of thousands of defenders of the city, who, deprived of the opportunity to evacuate, died or were taken prisoner after the capture of Sevastopol by the Nazis.

The legendary 25th Chapaev division, in which Lyudmila Pavlichenko fought, died. Her last fighters drowned the banners in the Black Sea so that they would not go to the enemy.

By the time of the evacuation from Sevastopol, Lyudmila Pavlichenko accounted for 309 destroyed enemy soldiers and officers. She achieved this stunning result in just a year of the war.

In Moscow, they decided that she had served the Motherland enough on the front line, and there was no point in throwing a repeatedly wounded, shell-shocked woman who survived personal losses into the inferno again. Now she had a completely different mission.

Hero of the Soviet Union sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko. 1967 Photo: RIA Novosti

"Come closer..."

At the invitation of the American President's wife Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Student Association, a delegation of Soviet students-front-line soldiers went to the USA. The delegation also included Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

Second World War for a well-fed America, even despite Pearl Harbor, it remained a distant event. The real horrors of war there were known only by hearsay. But the news that a Russian woman who personally killed more than 300 fascists is coming to the United States caused a sensation.

It is unlikely that American journalists understood exactly how the Russian heroine should look, but they definitely did not expect to see a pretty young woman whose photo could easily decorate the covers of fashion magazines.

Apparently, therefore, the thoughts of reporters at the first press conference with the participation of Pavlichenko went somewhere very far from the war.

What color underwear do you prefer? one of the Americans blurted out.

Lyudmila, smiling sweetly, replied:

For a similar question in our country, you can get a face. Come on, come closer...

This answer conquered even the most "toothy sharks" from the American media. Admiring articles about the Russian sniper appeared in almost all American newspapers.

"Don't you think you've been hiding behind my back for too long?"

She was personally received by the President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt, and with his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyudmila became friends, and this friendship lasted for many years.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko attended many receptions, participated in rallies in different cities of America. The main theme of her speeches remained the "second front". The Soviet soldiers who fought with the Nazis looked with hope at the allies, expecting them to start fighting against the Nazis in Europe, but the opening of the "second front" was postponed and postponed.

At a rally in Chicago, Lyuda Pavlichenko uttered words that would make her remembered in the United States for decades to come:

“Gentlemen, I am twenty-five years old. At the front, I have already managed to destroy three hundred and nine fascist invaders. Don't you gentlemen think that you've been hiding behind my back for too long?!..

The audience froze for a moment, and then burst into a flurry of applause. On that day, a young Russian girl forced many to change their attitude towards the war that was blazing in Europe. Famous American country singer Woody Guthrie dedicated a song to her called "Miss Pavlichenko":

In the summer heat, cold snowy winter
In any weather you hunt down the enemy
The world will love your pretty face, just like me
After all, more than three hundred Nazi dogs fell from your weapons ...

After the United States, Lyudmila Pavlichenko traveled to Canada, Great Britain, and then returned to the USSR, where she served as an instructor at the Shot sniper school.

winner

Decree of the Presidium Supreme Council USSR dated October 25, 1943, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Lieutenant Pavlichenko Lyudmila Mikhailovna was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko graduated military service with the rank of major. After the war, she completed her studies at Kiev University, then worked for many years as a researcher at the Main Staff of the Navy, and worked in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans.

She raised her son, remarried, lived full life. She won the right to this life for herself, for her loved ones and for all Soviet people, having stood in the way of the enemy and won an unconditional victory over him.

But the incredible strain of forces during the war years, wounds and shell shock made themselves felt. Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko died on October 27, 1974, at the age of 58. Her last resting place was the columbarium of the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

In the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of Russia, a special stand is dedicated to the feat of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, where her weapons and personal belongings are exhibited.

The feat is not "Lady Death", but an ordinary woman who brought her youth to the altar of Victory - one for all.

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Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko is a sniper whose biography contains a huge number of facts proving her invaluable contribution to the victory over the Nazis in the Great Patriotic war. On account of her destruction of 309 German soldiers and officers. Moreover, among the liquidated opponents there were 36 enemy snipers.

Childhood and youth

Date of birth - July 12, 1916. Place of birth is the Ukrainian city of Bila Tserkva. She studied at school number 3 located near the house. And when Lyudmila was 14 years old, the family moved to live in the capital of Ukraine, Kiev.

From childhood, the girl was distinguished by her fighting character and courage. She did not like games for girls, communicating mainly with boys. The father of Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko (nee Belova), who always dreamed of a son, was glad that his daughter was in no way inferior in strength and endurance to her peers - boys.

At the end of the ninth grade, Lyudmila went to work at the Arsenal plant, where she worked as a grinder. She managed to successfully combine work and study in the 10th grade.

Lyudmila got married early. At the time of marriage, she was only 16 years old. Soon the young couple had a son, Rostislav (died in 2007). But family life did not work out: having lived together for several years, the couple divorced. But Lyudmila did not refuse the surname of her husband. The husband of Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko died at the beginning of the war.

First training

While working at the Arsenal plant, L. M. Pavlyuchenko began to visit the firing range frequently. More than once she heard the boastful conversations of the neighbor guys who talked about their exploits at the training ground. At the same time, they argued that only boys can shoot well, and girls cannot do it. The story of Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko as a shooter began precisely with the fact that she wanted to prove to these boastful guys that girls can shoot just as well, or even better ...

In 1937, L. Pavlyuchenko went to study at Kiev University. Entering the Faculty of History, she dreamed of becoming a teacher or scientist.

When the war broke out

At the time of the invasion of the USSR by the Germans and Romanians, Lyudmila, the future hero of the USSR, lived in Odessa, where she arrived for graduation practice. She decided to go to the army, but the girls were not taken there. To get into the army, she had to prove her courage and willingness to fight enemies. One day the officers gave Lyudmila a strength test. She was given a gun in her hands and pointed to two Romanians who collaborated with the Nazis. She was overcome by anger at these people, bitterness for those whom they had taken their lives. Then she shot them both. After this impromptu assignment, she was finally accepted into the army.

In the rank of private Pavlyuchenko, Lyudmila Mikhailovna was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. Vasily Chapaev. She wanted to get to the front as soon as possible. Realizing that she would have to shoot to kill there, Lyudmila did not yet know how she would behave when faced with the enemy face to face. But there was no time to think and reflect. On the first day, she had to raise her weapon. Fear paralyzed her, the Mosin rifle (caliber 7.62 mm) with a 4-fold increase trembled in her hands.

Technical characteristics of the rifle sniper rifle arr. 1930:

caliber: 7.62 mm;

weight: 4.27 kg;

muzzle velocity: 865 m/s;

length: 1230 mm;

magazine capacity: 5 rounds;

sighting range: 1300-2000 m;

rate of fire: 10 rounds per minute;

loading type: manual.

Sight characteristics:

magnification: 3.5x;

Exit pupil diameter: 6 mm;

field of view: 4° 30';

removal of the exit pupil from the surface of the eyepiece lens

· is 72 mm;

Resolution power: 17″;

sight length: 169 mm;

sight weight: 0.270 kg.

But when she saw how a young soldier fell dead next to her, struck by a German bullet, she gained self-confidence and fired. Now nothing could stop her.

First tasks

Lyudmila firmly decided to go to sniper courses. Having successfully completed them, junior lieutenant Pavlyuchenko opened her combat account. Then, near Odessa, she had to replace the platoon commander who fell in battle. She, sparing no effort, destroyed the hated Nazis, until she received a concussion from a shell that exploded near. Her fighting spirit was not broken even by hellish pain. She continued to fight on the battlefield...

In October 1941, the Primorsky Army was transferred to the Crimea, where Lyudmila, along with her colleagues, began to defend Sevastopol.

Day after day, as soon as the sun began to rise, Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko went out “hunting” - a sniper whose biography is filled with events proving her loyalty to the Motherland. For hours on end, and in the heat, and in the cold, she was in ambush, waiting for the appearance of the "target". There were cases when I had to duel with venerable cruel German snipers. But thanks to endurance, endurance, lightning-fast reaction, she again and again emerged victorious even from the most difficult situations.

The snipers of the Great Patriotic War are poetically called the angels of death, and one glamorous magazine recently ranked them among the bloodiest killers. But you peer into Pavlichenko's face - beautiful, feminine, looking for the seal of death, and stumble upon the soft gaze of large and as if luminous eyes.

In addition to stunning vision, the sniper Pavlichenko had a keen ear and developed intuition. She learned to feel the forest as if she were a beast. Time after time she returned unharmed from the neutral zone, slipping out from under the very nose of the Fritz. They chatted as if the sniper had been charmed from death by a sorceress and as if she could hear everything within a radius of half a kilometer. And she remembered the ballistic tables by heart, calculated the distance to the object and the correction for the wind in the most accurate way.

Unequal fight

Often, Luda went on combat missions with Leonid Kutsenko. They began serving in the division almost at the same time. Some of their colleagues said that Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko was the front-line wife of Leonid Kutsenko. Her personal life before the war did not work out. It is possible that these two heroic people were indeed close.

Once, having received an order from the command to destroy the enemy command post discovered by the scouts, they quietly made their way to the indicated area, lay down in a dugout and began to wait for a convenient moment. Finally, the unsuspecting German officers appeared in the field of view of the snipers. They did not have time to approach the dugout, as they were struck down by two accurate shots. But the noise from the fall was heard by other soldiers and officers of the Nazi army. There were quite a lot of them, but Lyudmila and Leonid, changing positions, destroyed them all one by one. After laying down many enemy officers and signalers, the Soviet snipers forced the enemy to leave their command post.

Death of Leonid Kutsenko

German intelligence systematically reported to the command about the activities of Soviet snipers. A fierce hunt was conducted behind them, numerous traps were arranged.

Once a couple of brave Russian snipers, who at that moment were in ambush, were found. Heavy mortar fire was opened on Pavlyuchenko and Kutsenko. A mine exploded nearby, Leonid's hand was torn off. Lyudmila carried out a seriously wounded friend and made her way to her. But, no matter how hard the field doctors tried, Leonid Kutsenko died from severe wounds.

Bitterness from the loss loved one further strengthened Lyudmila in her desire to exterminate her sworn enemies. She not only took on the most difficult combat missions, but also taught shooting to young fighters, trying to give the maximum of her invaluable sniper experience.

During the defensive battles, she brought up more than a dozen good shooters. They, following the example of their mentor, rose to the defense of their Motherland.

In the mountains

Winter was coming on the rocky territory near Sevastopol. Acting in the conditions of mountain warfare, L. Pavlyucheno went into an ambush under the cover of night. From three o'clock in the morning she hid either in dense fog, or in mountain ledges, or in damp hollows. Sometimes the wait dragged on for many hours, and even days. But there was no hurry. It was necessary to follow the path of patience, calculating each step in advance. If you find yourself, then there will be no salvation.

It happened somehow that on Bezymyannaya she was alone against six submachine gunners. Noticing her the day before, when Pavlyuchenko destroyed many of their soldiers in an unequal battle, the Germans sat down over the road. It would seem that Lyudmila is doomed, because there were six Nazis, and at any moment they could notice her and destroy her. But even the weather stood up for her. A thick fog descended on the mountains, which allowed our sniper to find a convenient place for an ambush. But it still needed to get there. Moving in a plastunsky way, Lyudmila Mikhailovna crawled towards her cherished goal. But the Germans did not lose their stubbornness and persistently fired at her. One bullet almost hit the temple, the other went through the top of the cap. After that, having instantly assessed the location of the opponents, Pavlyuchenko fired two accurate shots. She answered both the one who almost hit her in the temple, and the one who almost put a bullet in the forehead. The surviving four Nazis continued their hysterical shooting. They pursued her, but as she crawled away, she killed three more, one after the other. One of the Germans ran away. She saw the bodies of the dead, but, fearing that one of them was pretending to be dead, she did not dare to immediately crawl up to them. At the same time, Lyudmila was aware that the one who ran away might just about bring other submachine gunners. And the fog thickened again. She nevertheless decided to crawl up to the enemies struck by her. They were all dead. Having picked up the weapons of the dead (automatic and light machine gun), she disappeared in time in an ambush. Several more German soldiers approached. They began to fire randomly again, and she fired back at once from several types of weapons. Thus, the Soviet sniper tried to convince the enemies that more than one person was fighting with them. Gradually moving away, she was able to hide from her opponents and survive in this unequal battle.

Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko - Hero of the USSR

TTD SVT40

rifle caliber - 7.62;
the weapon weighs 3.8 kg without bayonet and ammunition;
cartridge caliber - 7.62x54 mm;
rifle length - 1 m 23 cm;
standard rate of fire - from 20 to 25 rounds per minute;
initial bullet speed - 829 meters per second;
sight range - up to 1.5 km;
magazine holds 10 ammo.

Sight PU

Magnification : 3.5x
Field of view: 4°30′
Exit pupil diameter: 6mm
Aperture: 36
Eye relief: 72mm
Length: 169 mm
Weight: 270 g
Resolution power: 17′′

Pavlyuchenko was soon transferred to a neighboring regiment. Hitler's sniper operated on its territory, killing a lot of Soviet soldiers and officers. Also, two snipers of the regiment were killed by his bullet. For more than a day there was a silent battle between a German shooter and a Soviet sniper. But the Nazi fighter, accustomed to sleeping in a dugout, exhausted himself faster than Lyudmila. And although her whole body ached from cold and dampness, she turned out to be more agile, literally a fraction of a second ahead of the enemy aiming at her.

Having hit him with a deadly bullet, Lyudmila Alexandrovna crawled up and took out a sniper book from the pocket of the fascist. From it, she learned that it was the famous Dunkirk, which killed more than 500 British, French and Soviet soldiers.

By that time, numerous injuries and contusions worsened Lyudmila's condition so much that she was forcibly sent on a submarine to the mainland.

Since October 25, 1943, Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko has been a Hero of the Soviet Union. Later, on the direction of the Main Political Directorate, she traveled with the Soviet delegation to Canada and the United States of America.

During her visit overseas, Pavlichenko attended a reception with the President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt and even lived for some time in the White House at the invitation of his wife Eleanor Roosevelt.

The women became friends. One remarkable fact. Not knowing English, Lyudmila always performed in Russian. But for the sake of communication with Eleanor Roosevelt, she learned English. Then there was a long-term correspondence. In 1957, an American came to visit Pavlichenko.

In the meantime, the president's wife, as the first lady of America, organized a trip around the country for Soviet representatives. Ludmila performed in Washington, New York.

The delegation was received by President Roosevelt. At the press conference, Lyudmila made a splash. "What colour underwear you prefer?" - the journalists' questions were one more provocative than the other. The sniper was not at a loss: “For such a question in our country, you can get a face in the face. Come on, come closer ... ”The next day, all the US newspapers wrote about her.

But most of all she was remembered in Chicago. I must say that by that time the Soviet Union, more than ever, needed the opening of the Second Front. Western partners in the anti-fascist coalition were in no hurry to open it. Pavlichenko spoke about this. “Gentlemen,” she declared, “I am twenty-five years old. At the front, I managed to destroy 309 fascist invaders. Don't you think you've been hiding behind my back for too long?! The crowd of thousands froze, and then exploded with applause and shouts of approval.

In America, she was given a Colt, and in Canada, a Winchester.

"Lady Death"- the Americans admiringly called her, and country singer Woody Guthrie wrote the song “Miss Pavlichenko” about her.

V summer heat, cold snowy winter
In any weather you hunt down the enemy
The world will love your pretty face, just like me
After all, more than three hundred Nazi dogs fell from your weapons ...

In Canada, the delegation of the Soviet military was greeted by several thousand Canadians who gathered at the United Station in Toronto.

Upon returning, Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko, a sniper whose biography has become an example for many brave fighters, serves as an instructor at the Shot sniper school.

Postwar years

After the war, after graduating from Kiev University, this legendary Soviet woman works as a researcher at the General Staff of the Navy. She worked there until 1953.

Later, her work was related to helping war veterans. She was also one of the members of the Association of Friendship with the Peoples of Africa, visiting many African countries more than once.

Memory

Until the end of her life, it was Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko who was the symbol of heroism, stamina and courage of a Russian woman. The children from the pioneer organization, with whom she often spoke, loved to listen to her stories about the war. They gave her a slingshot, which was kept in the small museum of L. Pavlyuchenko for many years. In addition to this memorable gift, awards and souvenirs presented to Lyudmila on numerous business trips were kept there.

The grave of Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlyuchenko, who passed away on October 27, 1974, is located in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

The first Soviet woman to visit the White House. The American press called her "Lady Death". She dedicated a song by Woody Guthrie. She stood in front of a crowd of journalists in Chicago and said in perfect English: “Gentlemen, I am 25 years old. At the front, I have already managed to destroy 309 fascist invaders. Don't you gentlemen think you've been hiding behind my back for too long?! Lyudmila Pavlichenko is the only female sniper who, during her lifetime, was awarded the Gold Star medal and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Her name scared the invaders.

During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) throughout the Soviet Union and on all fronts, citizens and soldiers repeated the name of the Soviet heroine, the best sniper in the Soviet Union - Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko. Her name made its way across the Soviet border to the Allies, as well as to the Nazis, who secretly tried to kill her.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko was born in 1916 in the Ukrainian city of Belaya Tserkov. Her father was in the military and her mother was a teacher. in English. When she was 14 years old, her family moved to Kiev, where Lyudmila continued her studies in high school. She entered the Faculty of History of the Kiev State University, and then did her diploma practice at the Odessa Museum, where she wrote a diploma on the achievements of the hetman of the Cossack army Bohdan Khmelnitsky (1595-1657). Then the Great Patriotic War broke out. The Nazi army invaded through the western borders of the Soviet Union. Lyudmila thought about her sniper abilities: even while studying in Kiev, she easily defeated her classmates in shooting.

Context

Sniper Lyudmila and a film about her

War is Boring 06/20/2016 ABC.es 11/05/2017 Range personnel have been tasked with finding and reporting talent in the field. During her studies, Lyudmila was recalled from the university and took an intensive course for professional snipers at a military institute for six months. With the outbreak of war, June 22, 1941, she joined the soldiers at the front.

Battle for Sevastopol

“At first they didn’t accept female volunteers and I had to try all sorts of ways to become a soldier,” Lyudmila said. At the front, she again drew the attention of the command to her abilities. She was calm, and the invading soldiers fell from her bullets one by one. Having received the appropriate order from the field command post, she was officially assigned to the sniper squad. Lieutenant Lyudmila Pavlichenko fought with the Nazi offensive in the ranks of the 25th Infantry Division. One of the legendary divisions of the Red Army fought on the Moldavian front and participated in the defense of the city of Odessa.

They spent 255 days and nights at the front without interruption. The invaders gradually moved forward and penetrated deep into Soviet territory until they reached Sevastopol on the Black Sea. A female sniper left her military unit for the front every night before dawn, regardless of the weather. She was waiting for the right moment to kill the enemy.

Many times, in the midst of battles with the Nazi enemy, she killed Nazi snipers, thereby saving the lives of hundreds of Soviet soldiers.

A year after the outbreak of hostilities, Lyudmila killed 308 Nazi officers and soldiers, including 36 snipers. This is the best achievement of a female sniper in the Soviet Union.

The cruelty of the Nazis, the murder of women and children, strengthened the determination of Lyudmila.

“From the moment the Nazis broke through the borders of my country, one thought was spinning in my head: to defeat the enemy. By killing Nazis, I save lives." So the female sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko talked about her unusual military service.

In 2015, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the Russian-Ukrainian military drama film "Battle for Sevastopol" directed by Sergei Mokritsky was released.

The film tells the story of sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko. Events take place in different Soviet and American cities. The film took over two years to complete. The film "Battle for Sevastopol" was shown on state television in Russia and Ukraine on Victory Day, May 9th.

The script of the film was written on the basis of the idea of Yegor Olesov and based on the book of Lyudmila Pavlichenko herself "Heroic Reality: The Defense of Sevastopol 1941-1942", which was published in 1958.

Film director Sergei Mokritsky wrote the script together with Maxim Budarin and Leonid Korin. And the role of Pavlichenko was played by a young Russian actress Yulia Peresild.

The film is 120 minutes long and the budget was five million dollars. It was nominated for awards at various Russian and international film festivals. Film critics in Russia and Ukraine did not stop writing rave reviews, especially after the film was released on Ukrainian television screens under the name "Unbroken".

In 2015, the film "Battle for Sevastopol" received the Golden Eagle award at the 14th Film Awards. The official soundtrack for the film was composed and performed by the National Honored Academic Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. And also in the film, the song "Hug" by the famous Ukrainian musician Svyatoslav Vakarchuk and the song "Cuckoo" by Viktor Tsoi performed by the young Russian singer Polina Gagarina were used.

Traveling America

“Comrade Pavlichenko perfectly studied the habits of the enemy and mastered sniper tactics. A historian by education, a warrior by mentality, she fights with all the fervor of her young heart, ”the press wrote about her. Almost all the prisoners captured near Sevastopol spoke with a feeling of animal fear about a girl who, in their imagination, seemed to be something inhuman.

Shortly before the fall of Sevastopol, in June 1942, Lyudmila was seriously wounded. She was evacuated by sea. Later, she was sent with an official delegation to the United States and Canada to convince the allies to speed up the opening of a second front and fight Nazi Germany in Europe.

During this tour, Ludmila met with US President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, who invited Ludmila to live in the White House. Later, Eleanor Roosevelt invited Lyudmila to go on a joint trip around the country. From the moment she came to America, the press called her the "Lady of Death".

American journalists besieged Lyudmila from all sides. They threatened to meet her at a press conference in Chicago and ask uncomfortable questions which she cannot answer. Before the press conference, a member of the Soviet delegation gave her papers in which it was written what she needed to talk about. They were about the heroes of the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin, and also that the USSR was asking the allies to open a second front. However, Lyudmila calmly looked at the assembled journalists, holding papers in her hands. And then she said the famous phrase in pure English, which the world still remembers: “Gentlemen, I am twenty-five years old. At the front, I have already managed to destroy 309 fascist invaders. Don't you gentlemen think you've been hiding behind my back for too long?!

Lyudmila finished her speech and stared at the faces. Those gathered in the hall froze for a moment, and then burst into a flurry of applause. Nobody else asked. The Soviet heroine left an indelible impression on American society. American pop singer Woody Guthrie wrote a song about her called "Miss Pavlichenko". Guthrie met Ludmila in Chicago. He sang this song to her and she impressed her.

Great war heroine

After she returned to the USSR, she was awarded the rank of major. She worked as an instructor at a sniper school that produced dozens of Soviet snipers in later years.

On October 25, 1943, Lyudmila was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. She is the only female sniper who was awarded this title during her lifetime.

After the end of the war in 1945, Lyudmila defended her diploma at the Kiev State University. Until 1953, she worked as a senior researcher at the Main Staff of the USSR Navy, and then moved to work in the "Soviet Committee of War Veterans".

Lyudmila Pavlichenko died on October 27, 1974 in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko is a sniper whose biography contains a huge number of facts proving her invaluable contribution to the victory over the Nazis in the Great Patriotic War. On account of her destruction of 309 German soldiers and officers. Moreover, among the liquidated opponents there were 36 enemy snipers.

Childhood and youth

At the end of the ninth grade, Lyudmila went to work at the Arsenal plant, where she worked as a grinder. She managed to successfully combine work and study in the 10th grade.

Lyudmila got married early. At the time of marriage, she was only 16 years old. Soon the young couple had a son, Rostislav (died in 2007). But it did not work out: having lived together for several years, the couple divorced. But Lyudmila did not refuse the surname of her husband. The husband of Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko died at the beginning of the war.

First training

In 1937, L. Pavlyuchenko went to study at Kiev University. Entering the Faculty of History, she dreamed of becoming a teacher or scientist.

When the war broke out

In the rank of private Pavlyuchenko, Lyudmila Mikhailovna was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. She wanted to get to the front as soon as possible. Realizing that she would have to shoot to kill there, Lyudmila did not yet know how she would behave when faced with the enemy face to face. But there was no time to think and reflect. On the first day, she had to raise her weapon. Fear paralyzed her, the Mossin rifle (caliber 7.62 mm) with 4x magnification trembled in her hands. But when she saw how a young soldier fell dead next to her, struck by a German bullet, she gained self-confidence and fired. Now nothing could stop her.

First tasks

Lyudmila firmly decided to go to sniper courses. Having successfully completed them, junior lieutenant Pavlyuchenko opened her combat account. Then, near Odessa, she had to replace the platoon commander who fell in battle. She, sparing no effort, destroyed the hated Nazis, until she received a concussion from a shell that exploded near. Her morale is even hellish pain. She continued to fight on the battlefield...

In October 1941, the Primorsky Army was transferred to the Crimea, where Lyudmila, along with her colleagues, began to defend Sevastopol. Day after day, as soon as the sun began to rise, Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko went out “hunting” - a sniper whose biography is filled with events proving her loyalty to the Motherland. For hours on end, and in the heat, and in the cold, she was in ambush, waiting for the appearance of the "target". There were cases when I had to duel with venerable cruel German snipers. But thanks to endurance, endurance, lightning-fast reaction, she again and again emerged victorious even from the most difficult situations.

Unequal fight

Death of Leonid Kutsenko

German intelligence systematically reported to the command about the activities of Soviet snipers. A fierce hunt was conducted behind them, numerous traps were arranged.

The bitterness of the loss of a loved one strengthened Lyudmila even more in her desire to exterminate her sworn enemies. She not only took on the most difficult combat missions, but also taught shooting to young fighters, trying to give the maximum of her invaluable sniper experience.

During the defensive battles, she brought up more than a dozen good shooters. They, following the example of their mentor, stood up to defend their homeland.

In the mountains

Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko - Hero of the USSR

Sergeant Pavlyuchenko was soon transferred to a neighboring regiment. Hitler's sniper operated on its territory, killing many Soviet soldiers and officers. Also, two snipers of the regiment were killed by his bullet. For more than a day there was a silent battle between a German shooter and a Soviet sniper. But the Nazi fighter, accustomed to sleeping in a dugout, exhausted himself faster than Lyudmila. And although her whole body ached from cold and dampness, she turned out to be more agile, literally a fraction of a second ahead of the enemy aiming at her.

Having hit him with a deadly bullet, Lyudmila Alexandrovna crawled up and took out a sniper book from the pocket of the fascist. She learned from it that it was the famous Dunkirk, which killed more than 500 British, French and Soviet soldiers.

By that time, numerous injuries and contusions worsened Lyudmila's condition so much that she was forcibly sent on a submarine to the mainland.

Upon returning, Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko, a sniper whose biography has become an example for many brave fighters, serves as an instructor at the Shot sniper school.

Postwar years

After the war, after graduating from Kiev University, this legendary Soviet woman works as a researcher at the General Staff of the Navy. She worked there until 1953.

Later, her work was related to helping war veterans. She was also one of the members of the Association of Friendship with the Peoples of Africa, visiting many African countries more than once.

Her life and exploits became the reason that in the film "Unbroken" ("Battle for Sevastopol") so much attention was paid to the description of her image and services to the fatherland. This is not only for Sevastopol, this is a film about Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko - a woman who changed the course of history. It was she who, with her inspirational speeches, riddled with pain from combat losses, contributed to

Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko: personal life in cinema and in reality

But it should be noted that some facts from the life of this legendary man in the film are distorted. Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko is a sniper, her biography proves that the defense of the Motherland has always been the most important thing for her. In the film, personal life is put in the first place, the thoughts of the heroine revolve around love. Although in fact, in relations with Leonid Kutsenko, they were more like comrades-in-arms than lovers. Despite the fact that he really was a front-line husband for her. And a doctor named Boris is not mentioned at all in any bibliographic source.

At the end of the film, we see her with her son. The boy looks about 12 years old. Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko, whose son's family (Rostislav, his wife and daughter) were really her closest people, gave birth to him in 1932. The year of the film is 1957. He was actually 25 years old at the time.

Lyudmila simply could not have a father named Pavlyuchenko, who works in the NKVD. This is the surname of her husband, which, after a divorce from him, remained with her. By her father, she is Belova.

Memory

Until the end of her life, it was Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko who was the symbol of heroism, stamina and courage of a Russian woman. The children from whom she often spoke loved listening to her stories about the war. They gave her a slingshot, which was kept in the small museum of L. Pavlyuchenko for many years. In addition to this memorable gift, awards and souvenirs presented to Lyudmila on numerous business trips were kept there.

The grave of Pavlyuchenko Lyudmila Mikhailovna, who passed away on October 27, 1974, is located in Moscow.