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 the Kiev state university named after Taras Shevchenko. 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 excellent developed intuition- all these qualities for a sniper are priceless.

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 heard rustling 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, in a duel with Pavlichenko in different time 36 Nazi snipers entered. 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.

World War II for well-fed America, even despite Pearl Harbor, 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.

Read more: →

Pavlichenko Lyudmila Mikhailovna, born July 12, 1916 in Belaya Tserkov, Kiev region, died in 1974. Ukrainian, the most successful soviet sniper during the Second World War, the Soviet Union.

The feat of Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

- the most successful sniper in history.

During the war, Lyudmila was the only sniper who had 309 German soldiers on her account, including several dozen officers. " When I went to fight, at first I felt only anger because the Germans violated our peaceful life. But everything that I saw later gave rise to a feeling of such inextinguishable hatred in me that it is difficult to express it with anything other than a bullet in the heart of a Nazi", - said the sniper;

The achievements of Lyudmila Pavlichenko surpassed not only all female sniper achievements, but also most male ones;

There is a version that Lyudmila Pavlichenko had a special structure of the eyeball. In addition to stunning eyesight, she had a keen ear and excellent intuition. She learned to feel the forest as if she were a beast. They said that she was charmed from death by a healer and that she heard 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;

In October 1941, the Primorsky Army was transferred to. For 250 days and nights, in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet, she heroically fought against superior enemy forces, defended Sevastopol;

Once Lyudmila entered into combat with 5 German machine gunners. Only one managed to escape;

Pavlichenko and her lover Leonid Kitsenko were instructed to make their way to the German command post and destroy the officers who were there. Having suffered losses, the enemies fired mortars at the place where the snipers were. But Lyudmila and Leonid, having changed their position, continued to conduct well-aimed fire. The enemy was forced to leave his command post;

During the execution of combat missions by snipers, the most unexpected incidents often happened. Lyudmila once told about one of them herself: “ Once 5 snipers went into a night ambush. We passed the front line of the enemy and disguised ourselves in the bushes by the road. In 2 days we managed to exterminate 130 fascist soldiers and 10 officers. Angry Nazis sent a company of submachine gunners against us. One platoon began to bypass the height on the right, and the other - on the left. But we quickly changed our position. The Nazis, not understanding what was happening, began to shoot at each other, and the snipers returned safely to their unit».

Awards of Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

Medal "Gold Star" of the Hero of the Soviet Union;

Two orders of Lenin;

Lots of medals.

On March 16, 1942, a rally of snipers was held. Among the speakers was Lyudmila Pavlichenko. On her account, there were 187 killed Nazis in Sevastopol, by this moment she managed to liquidate 72 Germans. It was on this day that she vowed to kill at least 300 enemies. By July of this year, her personal "account" had reached 309 killed German soldiers and officers.

« They do not shun anything, German soldiers and officers. Everything human is alien to them. There is no word in our language that would define their vile essence. What can be said about the German, in whose bag I saw a doll taken from our child and a toy watch? Is it possible to call him a man, a warrior? Not! This is a rabid jackal that must be destroyed in order to save our children.”, - said Lyudmila, explaining what exactly prompted her to exterminate the Germans;

When Lyudmila was 15 years old, and she bore the name Belova, she fell in love with Andrei Pavlichenko, who was much older than her. However, soon their romance was interrupted, but Lyudmila was pregnant. Then her father, who at that time was an officer of the NKVD, found the father of the child and forced him to marry. Nevertheless, Lyudmila and Andrei could not create a strong one, the couple broke up. Lyudmila hated her ex so much that when he tried to repent, she refused to listen to him, did not even want to say his name. She was going to get rid of the surname Pavlichenko, but the war prevented her from filing for divorce;

At the front, Lyudmila Pavlichenko met another sniper, Alexei Kitsenko. It was him who, until the end of her days, the sniper remembered as true love. The couple even submitted a report to the management, in which they spoke about their desire to marry. Nevertheless, this was not destined to happen, since Alexei died during the assignment along with his beloved. He was severely wounded, and Lyudmila carried him from the battlefield on her own hands. The man could not be saved. Then real anger jumped in Lyudmila, and, in addition to the destruction of the Germans, she also undertook to teach the soldiers sniper skills and everything that she herself knew. Thanks to her Soviet army there were some more excellent snipers.

American country singer Woody Guthrie wrote the song "Miss Pavlichenko" about her;

Lyudmila Pavlichenko learned English, because during her visit to the city she became very close friends with the wife of American President Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt. They corresponded for many years. And in 1957, Eleanor even flew to visit Lyudmila in Moscow;

In April 2015, the Battle for was released, dedicated to Lyudmila Pavlichenko. The Ukrainian side financed the film by 79%, the Russian side - by the remaining 21%. However, due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the territory, this film was released under the name "Invincible";

In this tape, Lyudmila Pavlichenko is presented as an ethnic Ukrainian. In the film, she even sings a song in Ukrainian. However, the Russian side believes that such data is incorrect, since Lyudmila allegedly always called herself a Russian soldier. However, there is no evidence for this.

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Pages or groups dedicated to Lyudmila Pavlichenko, in social network was not found.

Biography of Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

Until the age of 14, Lyudmila studied at Belaya Tserkov, after which she and her family moved to Kiev;

While studying in the 9th grade, Lyudmila simultaneously worked as a grinder at the Arsenal plant;

1932 - Lyudmila, whose maiden name was Belova, married Alexei Pavlichenko, in the same year she gave birth to a son. Soon the marriage was annulled;

1937 - enters the Faculty of History of Taras Shevchenko Kiev State University. She began to get involved in gliding and shooting sports;

Lyudmila was in Odessa on graduation practice when the Second World War. Without hesitation for a long time, literally in the first days of the war, Pavlichenko volunteered for the front;

Passes short-term sniper courses, after which he finds himself in the ranks of the 25th Chapaev Rifle Division. She took part in the battles that took place on the territory of Moldova. Was involved in the defense of Sevastopol and Odessa;

June 1942 - was wounded, after which she was sent with a delegation to the USA and. During the visit, she met with Franklin Roosevelt, then President of the United States.

July 1942 - Lyudmila Pavlichenko already had 309 Germans killed, including 36 officers. In addition, Ludmila also taught a large number of snipers;

After the end of the war, Lyudmila defended her diploma at Kiev University, and also became a senior researcher at the Main Staff of the Navy;

1956 - went to work in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans;

Lyudmila Pavlichenko was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Perpetuation of the memory of Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

1976 - in honor of the 60th anniversary of Pavlichenko, a postage stamp with her image was published;

1976 - in honor of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a ship of the Ministry of Fisheries was named and launched, which in 1996 was scrapped;

In Sevastopol and the White Church there are streets named after Lyudmila Pavlichenko. By the way, in Bila Tserkva on this street there is also a school where a sniper trained. Directly in it there is a museum dedicated to Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

How often do users from Ukraine look for information about Lyudmila Pavlichenko in a search engine?

As can be seen from the photo, users search engine in September 2015, they were interested in the query "lyudmila pavlichenko" 859 times.

And according to this, you can see how the interest of Yandex users in the query "lyudmila pavlichenko" has changed over the past two years:

The highest interest in this request was recorded in May 2015 (about 12.5 thousand requests);

** If you have materials about other heroes of Ukraine, please send them to this mailbox

December 11, 2016, 21:17

Good afternoon, dear gossips. I want to dedicate a series of posts to our military girls who defended our Motherland during the Great Patriotic War.

There is not a single family that has not been affected by the war. Someone fought, someone worked, defended the borders, someone suffered in the blockade of Leningrad ... My grandparents from my mother's line - my grandfather guarded the border, and my grandmother was 15 years old when the war began. All the men, with the exception of two old men, went to the front. None returned. Grandmother, like everyone else in the village, women worked. She could not finish school, because. There was simply no time to study. I regret that I did not ask her enough how they survived this terrible time. And now there is no one to ask. Only now I began to understand why my grandmother loved dolls and soft toys so much. She always has a bear and a dragon sitting on her grave.

But this is a preface. I want to tell you about the fate of women who went to fight. And the first biographical story about Lyubov Pavlyuchenko (Belova), best woman sniper in world history.

Sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko (biography, 20 photos, video)

Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (née Belova) is the best female sniper in world history. During the first year of the Great Patriotic War, she destroyed 309 Nazis from a sniper rifle.

Biography of Lyudmila Pavlichenko

Lyudmila Belova was born on July 12, 1916 in the city of Belaya Tserkov, Kiev province. Russian Empire(now Kiev region of Ukraine). When she was 15, the family moved to Kiev. At that time, Lyudmila was already married and bore her husband's surname - Pavlichenko.
Here is what Vladimir Yakhnovsky, a senior researcher at the Kiev Memorial Complex "National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", says in an interview with the Ukrainian edition of Fakty:
“At the age of fifteen, when Luda was in the eighth grade and lived with her parents in Belaya Tserkov, the schoolgirl met at a dance with a student of the Agricultural Institute - a handsome man and a favorite of women, Alexei Pavlichenko, who was much older than her. The girl fell in love at first sight and soon became pregnant. Luda's father (at that time an NKVD officer) Mikhail Belov tracked down Alexei and forced him to marry.Lyudmila gave birth to a boy whom she named Rostislav, Rostik.But Pavlichenko turned out to be a dishonorable person and their life together did not work out.
Mikhail Belov was soon transferred to serve in Kiev. Here the girl went to work at the Arsenal plant, graduated from evening school. Perhaps this is what made it possible then to write in the questionnaires that her origin was from the workers. The family tried not to advertise the fact that Lyudmila's mother, from a noble family, was a highly educated woman, instilled in her daughter a love of knowledge and foreign languages. In fact, it was the grandmother who raised her grandson, the son of Lyuda, in whom she did not have a soul.
Lyudmila hated the father of her child so much that when he tried to repent, she gave him a turn from the gate, did not even want to pronounce his name. I was going to get rid of the Pavlichenko surname, but the war prevented filing for divorce.

In 1937, when her son was 5 years old, Pavlichenko entered the Faculty of History of Taras Shevchenko Kiev State University. During her studies, she was engaged in gliding and shooting sports.

Ludmila Pavlichenko. student photo

When the war began, Lyudmila volunteered for the front.
To make sure of her ability to wield weapons, the army gave her an impromptu test near the hill, which was defended by Soviet soldiers. Lyudmila was handed a gun and pointed out two Romanians who were working with the Germans. "When I shot them both, they finally accepted me." Pavlichenko did not include these two shots in her list of victorious ones - according to her, they were just trial shots.
Private Pavlichenko was enrolled in the 25th Infantry Division named after Vasily Chapaev.
On her first day at the front, she faced the enemy face to face. Paralyzed with fear, Pavlichenko was unable to raise her rifle. Next to her was a young soldier whose life was instantly taken by a German bullet. Lyudmila was shocked, the shock prompted her to action. "He was a wonderful happy boy who was killed right in front of my eyes. Now nothing could stop me."

As part of the Chapaev division, she participated in defensive battles in Moldova and in southern Ukraine. For good preparation, she was sent to a sniper platoon. Since August 10, 1941, as part of the division, she participated in the defense of Odessa.
In mid-October 1941, the troops of the Primorsky Army were forced to leave Odessa and evacuate to the Crimea to strengthen the defense of the city of Sevastopol - the naval base of the Black Sea Fleet. Lyudmila Pavlichenko spent 250 days and nights in heavy and heroic battles near Sevastopol.

Lyudmila's partner was Alexei Kitsenko, whom she met before the war, in Kiev. At the front, they filed a marriage registration report.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko and her lover Alexei Kitsenko. The photo was taken in February 1942 in Sevastopol, shortly before the death of Alexei

However, their happiness was short-lived, in February 1942 he was mortally wounded by fragments of a shell that exploded nearby during an artillery raid. Alexei sat with his hand on Lyudmila's shoulders. When a shell exploded nearby, he got all the fragments - seven wounds. And one fragment almost cut off the arm, the very one that lay on Lyudmila's shoulder. Alexei had not hugged her at that moment, and a fragment would have broken Lyudmila's spine.
After the death of her beloved, Pavlichenko's hands began to tremble, for some time she could not shoot.

Among the 309 Nazis destroyed by Lyudmila were 36 Nazi snipers. Among them is Dunkirk, which destroyed 400 French and British, as well as 100 Soviet soldiers. V total 500 people - more than Pavlichenko herself killed. It is worth noting that the achievements of Lyudmila surpassed several dozen male snipers of the Second World War. However, for a woman, her results were simply fantastic, especially considering that she spent only a year at the front, after which she was wounded, was evacuated from Sevastopol and never returned to the front, training other snipers.

There is a version that Lyudmila Pavlichenko had a special structure of the eyeball. In addition to stunning eyesight, she had a keen ear and excellent intuition. She learned to feel the forest as if she were a beast. They said that she was charmed from death by a healer and that she heard 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.

Many foreigners wondered how such a smiling woman could kill more than three hundred people in cold blood. In her autobiography "Heroic Reality", Lyudmila gives an answer to this:
"Hate teaches a lot. She taught me how to kill enemies. I am a sniper. Near Odessa and Sevastopol, I destroyed 309 Nazis with a sniper rifle. Hatred sharpened my sight and hearing, made me cunning and dexterous; hatred taught me to disguise myself and deceive the enemy, to unravel his various tricks and tricks in time; hatred taught me to patiently hunt enemy snipers for several days. Nothing can quench the thirst for revenge. As long as at least one invader walks our land, I will mercilessly beat the enemy.

In 1942, Lyudmila Pavlichenko went to the United States as part of the Soviet delegation. Soviet Union needed at that time the Allies to open a Second Front in Europe. In her most famous speech, Pavlichenko, addressing the Americans, said: "Gentlemen! I am twenty-five years old. At the front, I have already managed to destroy 309 fascist invaders. Don't you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long ?!"
From another American speech by Pavlichenko: "I want to tell you that we will win! That there is no force that can prevent the victorious march of the free peoples of the world! We must unite! As a Russian soldier, I offer you, the great soldiers of America, my hand."

American country singer Woody Guthrie wrote the song "Miss Pavlichenko" about her. It sings:

Miss Pavlichenko, her fame is known
Russia is your country, battle is your game
Your smile shines like the morning sun
But more than three hundred Nazi dogs fell to your weapons.

Woody Guthrie

Pavlichenko always performed in Russian, knowing only a few phrases in English. However, during a visit to the United States, she became friends with the wife of American President Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt. For the sake of communicating with her (they corresponded for many years, and in 1957 Mrs. Roosevelt came to visit Pavlichenko in Moscow), Lyudmila learned English.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko during a meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt. On the left is US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson.

After the war, in 1945, Lyudmila Mikhailovna graduated from Kiev University and remarried. Husband - Shevelev Konstantin Andreevich (1906-1963). From 1945 to 1953, Lyudmila Mikhailovna was a researcher at the Main Staff of the Navy. Later she worked in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans. She was a member of the Association of Friendship with the Peoples of Africa, and repeatedly visited African countries.
Lyudmila Mikhailovna passed away in Moscow on October 27, 1974. She died hard, the wounds received in battle hurt. The son quit his job to take care of his mother. He loved his mother very much. Lyubmila was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

a stele on the grave of L. Pavlichenko, her mother Elena Belova, her husband and son are buried next to her

Now about the adaptation of her biography ....

In April 2015, the joint Russian-Ukrainian film "Battle for Sevastopol" dedicated to Lyudmila Pavlichenko was released. The Ukrainian side financed the film by 79%, the Russian side - the remaining 21%. Filming took place from late 2013 until June 2014. Due to the annexation of Sevastopol to Russia in 2014, Ukrainian distributors abandoned the name "Battle for Sevastopol" and chose the name "Nezlamna" (Unbreakable), which more closely matches the spirit of the film, because only part of the plot takes place in Sevastopol and the scale of hostilities for this city is not disclosed in the film.

The role of Lyudmila Pavlichenko in the film is played by Russian actress with Estonian roots Yulia Peresild. This choice can hardly be considered successful. Firstly, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was far from being of a fragile physique, unlike Peresild. Secondly, the actress showed the character of Lyudmila Pavlichenko exactly the opposite of what he was in reality. This was noted by the relatives of Lyudmila Mikhailovna. The granddaughter of Lyudmila Pavlichenko Alena Rostislavovna said about the heroine Peresild like this: " The actress, of course, does not look like a grandmother. Julia showed her very silent and cold. Lyudmila Mikhailovna was bright and temperamental. It can be seen that the actress is difficult to play.".
The widow of Pavlichenko's son, Lyubov Davydovna Krasheninnikova, a retired major of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, also noted the dissimilarity of Yulia Peresild to her legendary mother-in-law. " Lyudmila Mikhailovna was a sniper, but this does not mean that in life she is harsh and restrained. On the contrary, he was a kind-hearted man. And the actress showed Pavlichenko silent and the same everywhere"Most of all, Lyubov Krasheninnikova was struck by the cold relationship of the on-screen Lyudmila Pavlichenko with her family -" as if she did something wrong". "She loved her family very much and treated them with tenderness.".

Yulia Peresild as Lyudmila Pavlichenko in the film "Battle for Sevastopol"

The film did not make such an impression on me as the biography of this brave woman. For those who have watched the movie and know the biography, all the inaccuracies are noticeable. We can say that the character of Lyudmila is not revealed, the name of the film in the Russian box office is also not clear.

When you start to think about what people had to live and overcome during the war years, it becomes scary. Such biographies inspire me and make me stronger.

I hope you were interested.

100 years ago, on July 12, 1916, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was born - the most successful female sniper in world history, who had 309 confirmed fatal hits on enemy soldiers and officers, for which she received the nickname "Lady Death".

Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper of World War II, had to deal with 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 in front of them was an ordinary young woman who had terrible trials that failed to break her will.
She was so sweet and welcoming. Looking at Lyudmila Pavlichenko, it was impossible to imagine that she was an experienced sniper, who accounted for hundreds of killed soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht ...
Once on the front line, Lyudmila Pavlichenko could not bring herself to shoot a man. How is that even possible?! All sentiment was removed by the first fight. The young neighbor, who was sitting next to him in the trench, suddenly twitched, spreading his arms, and fell on his back.
"He was a beautiful happy boy who was killed right in front of my eyes,- Lyudmila later recalled. - Now nothing could stop me."

Original taken from tverdyi_znak

Lyudmila Belova was born on July 12, 1916 in the city of Belaya Tserkov, Kiev province of the Russian Empire. Pavlichenko's mother was a teacher in English. Father - Major of the NKVD. Until the age of 14, she studied at secondary school No. 3 in the city of Belaya Tserkov.

Ordinary life was changed by the first love, which ended with an early marriage, and the birth of a son, Rostislav, who was born when Lyuda was only 16 years old. Having met at the age of 15 at a dance with 25-year-old student Alexei Pavlichenko, the naive schoolgirl simply lost her head. And when the tall handsome man departed in an unknown direction, she still did not suspect what it would turn out for her. The rounded belly was the first to be noticed by my mother. That same evening, Luda confessed to her parents about her relationship with Pavlichenko. It was not difficult for NKVD Major Mikhail Belov to find him and force him to marry his deceived daughter. But you won't be forced to be nice. Although Lyudmila married Alexei Pavlichenko in 1932, this did not save her from gossip. As a result, the family moved to Kiev. Quarrels, reproaches, scandals - a short marriage led to mutual hatred, and then to divorce. Lyudmila returned to live with her parents. 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 gliding and shooting sports, showing very good results.

Historians and experts who have studied the military exploits of Lyudmila Pavlichenko tend to think that she owes her military victories to her amazing abilities. It is believed that the girl had a special structure of the eye, which allowed her to see a little more than others.
In addition, Pavlichenko had a subtle ear and amazing intuition, she somehow incomprehensibly felt the forest, wind, rain. And also - she knew the ballistic tables by memory, with the help of which she calculated the distance to the object.

In the summer of 1941, a fourth-year student, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, did pre-graduation practice at a scientific library in Odessa. The theme of the future diploma has already been chosen - the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. Oh, who then could have imagined that the paths of Russia and Ukraine would part?

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. According to the received specialty, the girl was enlisted as a sniper in the 25th Chapaev Infantry Division. The fighters, who had already managed to sniff the gunpowder, smiled bitterly: “We ourselves fall for nuts, why did they send a woman to such hell?”
The company commander was more restrained, but he did not hide his skepticism towards the newcomer. Especially when she was taken out of the trench in a state of shock after the German attack. He waited until the girl came to her senses, and then led her to the parapet and asked: “Do you see the Germans? There are two Romanians next to them - can you shoot?!” Pavlichenko shot both of them, after which all questions from the commander disappeared.

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 a war, when the nerves are strained to the limit, and the closest and dearest is the one who helps you survive, this happens. For Lyudmila, the commander, junior lieutenant Kitsenko, became such a person. In December 1941, Lyuda was wounded, and Kitsenko pulled her out of the fire. The report to the unit commander with a request to register the marriage was a logical continuation of the front-line romance. But life took a different direction...
The profession of a sniper is full of dangers. Often, after his shots, the enemy opened a hurricane of fire from cannons on the intended square. This is how Kitsenko died in February 1942. His death happened in front of Lyudmila. The lovers were sitting on a hillock when shelling suddenly began.
Shell fragments pierced the groom's back, and one cut off the arm with which he hugged the bride. This is what saved the girl, because if not for the hand, the fragment would have broken her spine. Kitsenko'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.

The death of a loved one did not go unnoticed for Lyudmila. For a while she was in shock, her hands were trembling, there was no question of shooting. But then something seemed to die in this smiling girl. Now she went into the "green" at dusk and returned when twilight was gathering over the positions. Her personal account of the destroyed Nazis grew at an unprecedented pace - one hundred, two hundred, three hundred ...

Moreover, among those killed were not only soldiers and officers, but also 36 fascist snipers. Pretty soon, the German positions learned about the deadly Frau. She was even "given" a nickname - the Bolshevik Valkyrie. To neutralize it, at the beginning of 1942, a sniper ace arrived near Sevastopol. The German used an unexpected tactic for the snipers.
Having found the target, he left the shelter, approached and fired, after which he disappeared. Pavlichenko had to work hard to win the sniper duel against him. When she opened the notebook of the shot enemy, she read the inscription - Dunkirk and his personal account - 500.

But death was constantly hovering next to Pavlichenko. 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.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko and I. Maisky's wife at a reception at the Soviet embassy in Great Britain

Soon, Pavlichenko, as part of a delegation of Soviet youth, was sent on a business trip to the United States - to convince the Americans to open a second front. Contrary to popular belief, Lyudmila did not know English, but her exploits spoke for themselves.
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.

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

Even the wife of the President of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, could not resist the immediacy of this girl: she invited her to live in the White House.

Later, Eleanor Roosevelt invited Lyudmila Pavlichenko on a trip around the country. Ludmila has spoken before the International Student Assembly in Washington DC, before the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), as well as in New York, but many remember her speech in Chicago.
"Gentlemen, - a sonorous voice resounded over the crowd of thousands gathered. — 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 you've been hiding behind my back for too long?!
The crowd froze for a moment, and then exploded into a frantic roar of approval...

In America, she was given a Colt, and in Canada, a Winchester (exhibited at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces).

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

Lyudmila Pavlichenko among the workers of the small arms factory in Liverpool. 1942.

After returning, Major Pavlichenko served as an instructor at the Shot sniper school. After the war, in 1945, Lyudmila Mikhailovna graduated from Kiev University. From 1945 to 1953 she was a researcher at the Main Staff of the Navy. Later she worked in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans.
Her post-war personal life It also turned out well - she got married, raised her son, and was engaged in social activities. Lyudmila Mikhailovna died in October 1974, having found peace at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
Named after Lyudmila Pavlichenko sniper rifle"Luda" in computer game Borderlands 2. Also, in honor of Lyudmila Mikhailovna, the surname Pavlichenko is the main character of the second season of the 2009 anime series “Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini”

The image of Pavlichenko is embodied in the film by Sergei Mokritsky "Battle for Sevastopol / Nezlamna" (2015), in which the main role was played by Yulia Peresild.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko (née Belova) was born on June 29 (July 12), 1916 in the village of Belaya Tserkov, now a city in the Kiev region of Ukraine. Since 1932 she lived in Kiev. After graduating from 9 classes, she went to work at the Arsenal plant, where she completed a full course of the Osoaviakhim sniper school on the job. In 1932 she married Alexey Pavlichenko. Soon the marriage was annulled, and she returned to live with her parents. In 1937 she entered the Faculty of History of Kiev University, but due to illness she was forced to leave the 2nd year and leave for Odessa at the end of 1940 for treatment. On June 15, 1941, she was sent to one of the Odessa sanatoriums, where she met the war.

She voluntarily joined the Red Army and on June 28 was enrolled in one of the Odessa fighter battalions, which soon joined the 25th Chapaev division and received the name of the 54th rifle regiment. Lyudmila very soon proved that she is a worthy fighter of the legendary division. She participated in defensive battles in Moldova and in southern Ukraine. For good shooting training, she was sent to a sniper platoon. Since August 10, 1941, as part of the division, she participated in the defense of Odessa. In mid-October 1941, the troops of the Primorsky Army were forced to leave the city and evacuate to the Crimea to strengthen the defense of the city of Sevastopol.

April 24, 1942 received the first award - the medal "For Military Merit". By the spring of 1942, Senior Sergeant L. M. Pavlichenko had destroyed more than 250 enemies. By order No. 137 of July 16, 1942, she was already awarded the Order of Lenin by the troops of the North Caucasian Front.

By July 1942, the sniper of the 2nd rifle company of the 54th rifle regiment (25th rifle division, Primorskaya army, North Caucasian Front), Lieutenant L. M. Pavlichenko, destroyed 309 enemy soldiers and officers, including 36 snipers [some historians question these figures as clearly inflated], brought up dozens of good snipers. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 25, 1943, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 1218).

In August 1942, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and the famous sniper of the Leningrad Front Vladimir Pchelintsev were included in the Soviet delegation to the international anti-fascist student congress, which gathered in the United States, where they stayed until January 1943. This was the end of her combat work.

In 1943, Coast Guard Major L. M. Pavlichenko graduated from the Shot course. After the war, in 1945 she graduated from Kiev State University. In 1945-1953 worked as a researcher at the Main Staff of the Navy. A participant in many international congresses and conferences, she did a lot of work in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans. Died October 27, 1974. She was buried in the columbarium of the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

She was awarded two Orders of Lenin (07/16/1942, 10/25/1943), medals, including "For Military Merit" (04/24/1942). The name of the Heroine was given to the vessel of the Ministry of Fisheries. A street in Sevastopol was named after L. M. Pavlichenko, at the beginning of which an annotation board was installed. In Odessa, a memorial plaque was installed on the building where she worked in 1941.

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From photographs of different years:

From the press materials of the war years:

Article by Oleg Kaminsky -