Lyudmila Pavlichenko - The Extraordinary Sniper

during World War two most women were doing their duty on the home front by working in factories and looking after the future generations of their respective nations but there was one 24 year old Ukrainian woman named Ludmilla Pavlichenko and she wasn't about to let Nazi Germany take over her beloved USSR with 309 confirmed kills Ludmilla Pavlichenko became the most successful female sniper in all of history [Applause] Ludmila Bulova was born on July the 12th 1916 in bila tserkva in Ukraine this was just a year before the Bolshevik Revolution when the Russian Empire was transformed into the USSR she was raised in a world where people had a zealous enthusiasm for communism and women they were beginning to enjoy the benefits of the feminist ideals that came along with it her mother was a schoolteacher and her father was a factory worker in San Petersburg during the Bolshevik Revolution he also fought for the Red Army during the Russian Civil War after a few years father worked his way up to an executive position that required the family to move to a different town every year this meant that every year she was forced to start over in a new school as a young girl Bulova was considered to be a bit of a tomboy because she preferred to play outside with the boys essentially spends her whole life playing sports outside she was very athletic and could do anything that a boy could do when she was 14 years old her family moved to the city of Kiev and she was trying to make new friends one of the boys in town was constantly bragging that he was a real sharpshooter annointed his arrogance but over thought to herself that she could shoot as well as any boy cut so he signed up to be a part of a local shooting club and here's the thing she was absolutely right she had the natural talent and determination to prove that she could succeed this male-dominated sport soon enough she began to win medals at all sorts of marksmanship competitions one day she went to the carnival with her friends there was a booth set up with 12 different targets if he had one target with the gun you got a prize Ludemann up paid for 15 bullets knocked down all of the 12 targets she said the man who ran the place turned pale with alarm and astonishment as he unfastened one prize after another and piled up beside me after letting him hand me the twelfth I felt sorry for him and gave him back all the prizes as a teenager she began working at the Kiev Arsenal Factory they made weapons so she was very literally learning the ins and outs of guns as time went on she became an expert in firearms and her skill set improved exponentially eager to complete her education Ludmilla finished school a year and a half earlier than appears at the time it wasn't uncommon for young women to drop out of school at an early age in favour of working but she was determined to go to college already a high school graduate she married a young man named Alexey Pavlichenko at the age of 16 they had a son they're named rostislav young women in Russia they were expected to get married and start having children in an early age so this wasn't strange or scandalous in any way and unlike in other parts of the world the USSR had pride in their women working full-time and also raising a family it was rare for women to become a stay-at-home mom who focused on her own children and husbands needs the only way they were able to accomplish this was to have the mindset that it takes a village to raise a child everyone took turns looking after the children of the community of course this is all part of the larger communist ideal that the country as a whole was more important than your individual family Ludmila Pavlichenko she wanted more in her life than just raising her son and working in the Arsenal Factory she wanted an education and she wanted a career this ultimately led her to getting a divorce even though she and Alexei were married for a short while Ludmilla continued to use her new last name Pavlichenko after getting her divorce finalized she became a history major at Kiev University and plans to become a teacher before the war the upper management in the Arsenal factory recommended her for a position in the military engineering school but she declines because she wasn't interested in warfare she was about to finish a bachelor's degree and she planned to go on to earn her master's but before she could complete her education the nazis bombed her school in the summer of 1941 the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union with their plan called Operation Barbarossa the Battle of Kiev it brought the war very literally to Lib Miller's front door the Nazis attacked from both the North and the South making this the largest encirclement in all of history but Miller later said of these Nazi attacks you do not know what it is to have bombs falling all around you you do not know what it is to see babies murdered women and girls ravished by Hitler eyed beasts you do not know what it is to find the charred bodies of your own comrades burns and tortured beyond recognition to see rows of brave fine people people you knew hanging along the roadside after witnessing all of the death and destruction brought home by the Germans she was ready and willing to set aside her dreams of becoming a teacher in order to kill some Nazis she was 24 years old when she enlisted the Soviet army but at first she was actually denied because she was a woman in 1941 there was a push for women to replace their husbands jobs in the factories and help secure the homefront while the men went off to war the USSR would eventually begin recruiting women on a more regular basis in 1942 but Pavlichenko was one of the rare ladies who took the initiative to show up without being asked men were accepted into the army straight away of course but as a lady she needed to prove that she was actually capable of fighting and killing some Nazis she was prepared for their doubt though because she brought with her her marksmanship medals after seeing her skill said they allowed her to enlist but the trials in proving herself they were far from over the Russians sent her to study at a sniper school that would eventually be an all women's sniper school established in 1942 but Ludmilla Pavlichenko she volunteered so early that she had to go to one that was filled with men the officers they began to bully her and during her initiation she was told that she had to kill two German soldiers who were standing in an open field if she failed she was no longer allowed to be a sniper and should have to return home asking someone to do this especially a rookie was nearly an impossible feat during World War two the average sniper needed multiple bullets to kill someone not only that but the moment one soldier was shot and killed the second would immediately know to take cover and drop to the grounds or indeed shoot back this was also the first time that Miller Pavlichenko would have killed another human being but she did not complain she took a deep breath and calmly killed both Nazis with two quick head shots her aim it was perfect but her cover was blown the enemy begins fire in her direction she said I have to admit I was scared in my first real baptism of fire I was in range of hot German fire as I called out to our machine gunners to cover me with returned fire and save me as terrifying as their day must have been she officially passed the test she became a sniper in the Red Army [Music] the siege of a desert lasted from the 8th of August to the 16th of October 1941 during those 2 months of fighting the Nazis lamella Pavlichenko achieved a hundred and eighty seven confirmed kills now at the time all Soviet snipers used a Mosin Nagant M 91/30 and many of them kept track of their confirmed kills by cutting a notch into the butt of their gun with a knife one of the many reasons why Pavlichenko was so successful at being a sniper was that she had a deep-seated hatred for the Nazis and no longer saw them as human beings hatred did not come to us all at once we are a peace-loving people and we had to learn to hate but fierce hatred rose within us after we saw with her own eyes what the Hitler beasts could do now we hate the enemy too much to fear him one day Ludmilla Pavlichenko is hiding inside of a tree covered with the leaves an enemy soldier figured out where she was and began to shoot the tree knowing that her cover was blown she purposefully fell even though she was still alive once she hit the ground she laid still and played dead the battle continued to rage on around her and the bodies of a comrades fell near feet away from her she waited until nightfall to finally stand up and sneak her way back to camp her comrades looked at her like they were seeing her ghost everyone at this point began calling her lady death this near-death experience only made her more cautious and she thought harder about every single strategy she invented tactics to distract the Nazis some of these tricks included the things like brightly covered scarves on plants but after she is one of these tricks a few times she knew that it was time to try something new next was the Battle of Sevastopol where she killed an additional 70 soldiers bringing a new total kill count to 257 her superior officers knew the Pavlichenko was needed as a counter sniper which means that she was assigned to take out other snipers which was significantly more difficult than bringing down regular soldiers during this time being a counter sniper she would have to stay in our hiding spot without moving for as long as it took to take down the other snipers on average it would take her 15 to 20 hours to spot and kill the enemy sniper Pavlichenko said the one of the most common tricks that the Germans tried to use was to toss a tin can which glistened in the Sun if she shot at the can it would give her position away another common tactic was to use a dummy in a German uniform hidden in the bushes another soldier even brought a pet cat with him and threw it out into the open as if to give her a false sense of security once they exhausted their long list of parlor tricks the sniper thought the coast was clear and he would stand up and that's the moment when she would shoot him but there was at least one German sniper that took three days of laying still in a hiding spot without any food or water she went head to head with enemy snipers 36 times and she always came out victorious there was one particular battle where all of the senior officers had been killed with everyone being of equal rank no one knew what to do there was no one willing to step up and take over but Pavlichenko she took the initiative and started shouting a plan and what to do next at first some of the men hesitated to listen to her until one of them yelled cowards look at this woman Pavlichenko has the balls of a man that comment was enough to snap them out of their fear and the men agreed to go with her because of her they all made it out alive but of course the war wasn't just filled with triumphant moments like this she witnessed truly gruesome things that would haunt her for the rest of her life one such moment was when the Nazis had occupied a town called softcore silica just outside of Edessa the Red Army managed to defend the city and the soldiers began to check in on the civilians and give medical attention to those in need the Miller Pavlichenko was one of the soldiers who rushed to the local retirement home to make sure that the elderly people were alright it was early morning and the Sun was just rising and we went in to set the people there free but what we found were the bodies of a hundred and eight people shot and tortured sash to pieces 108 people all of them old and ill and so depraved those HIPPA rights that the old women had all been raped with every passing moment Pavlichenko was finding more and more motivation to keep on killing Nazis eventually her kill counter was raised to a total of three hundred and nine not counting the first two men that she'd killed more and more people began to whisper stories about Pavlichenko she began rising in the ranks of the Red Army and became a left tenant after a while that Miller had leshenka had a reputation that preceded her when the Germans knew that she was across enemy lines they would shout that she was going to be cut into 309 pieces other times that Germans would offer to give her chocolate if she came over to their side but this didn't rattle her nerves if anything it only a Mew staff she knew that if they were calling her by name as men's that they knew who she was they were truly terrified of her the feeling I have after killing a Nazi is the feeling of a hunter who has killed a beast of prey every time my bullet fells a Nazi I have the feeling that I've saved lives now they say that all is fair in love and war but for Ludmilla Pavlichenko she got a bit of both she fell in love with the fellow sniper named sergeant major Leonard tkachenko unfortunately we don't know much about this man because there are very few records that exist outside of her very brief mention of him in her speeches they were married during the war but tragically tkachenko he was killed in the line of duty Pavlichenko herself was shot four times in the course of the war shrapnel was also scattered all over her body and yet she continued to fight but there reached a point when there was so much shrapnel in her body that her health was on the rapid declined and she had to be rushed to the hospital she was honorably discharged back to her home in the Ukraine and became reunited with her son however without a beloved katenka there was a hole missing in her heart she couldn't settle down and start her life for her the war it wasn't over and her opportunity to fight Nazis in another way was just around the corner [Music] for years the United States it refrains from getting involved in world war two but in 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor the United States sent soldiers to fight the Japanese but they didn't send any of the men to Europe for a few more years Joseph Stalin reached out to Franklin Delano Roosevelt for help in what they called the second front however it was hard enough to convince Americans to sacrifice their lives in the first place and they desperately needed public approval before Roosevelt began to send troops to Europe one of their strategies was to have Lyudmila Pavlichenko go on an American tour to speak to audiences about her story Roosevelt believed that by seeing that even women were fighting in Russia that this would actually hurt the pride of American men and make them feel more inclined to go to war but Miller Pavlichenko she traveled to the United States in 1942 but instead of respecting her amazing accomplishments American reporters they were quite rude they asked her why she did not wear makeup or styler hair another asked how she felt about the boxy military uniform that made her look fat one writer for The Washington Post Malvina Linz even wrote the Pavlichenko should have worn makeup on the battlefield in her article it said isn't it a part of military philosophy that an efficient warrior takes pride in his appearance isn't Joan of Arc always pictured in beautiful and shining armor as ridiculous as it sounds about Lerch Anka had to make a public statement of the American media that when you're getting shot at you don't exactly have time to worry about powdering your nose First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was on the tour as well and she was quietly seething when she saw what was going on with all of this pressure being put on her shoulders Ballard Schenker felt understandably awkward during her speeches she could not speak English so a Russian translator was there to help her after the first speech mrs. Roosevelt decided to take Ludmilla Pavlichenko under her wing she gave her advice on public speaking as well as learning how to ignore the reporters and their outlandish questions during the talk they traveled to a total of 43 different states as time went on Pavlichenko got more and more comfortable in front of the crowd and she learned to smile and stand with ease and confidences she told her inspiring stories when reporters asked her condescending questions she was ready with witty answers why you'll never necessarily expect these two people to become close Eleanor Roosevelt and develop have two Changkat they became very good friends and they were sad to say goodbye [Music] after her American tour Pavlichenko returned home to the Ukraine photographs and excerpts from her life story they were printed in newspapers all over the world and she became a national symbol of women in the USSR in 1943 she was honored by being featured on a Russian postage stamp even though she is one of the most celebrated female Gunners Ludmila Pavlichenko was far from being the only hero of the Red Army a woman named Nina on a lever left a factory job to handle a machine gun she became known as anchor the machine gunner despite her success she was killed early on in the war and posthumously awarded a medal naming her a Hero of the Soviet Union it was also another accomplished female sniper named rose of Shanina who was nicknamed the unseen terror of Prussia after World War II was over the Cold War began the Soviets they were no longer friends of the Americans 15 years after meeting her Eleanor Roosevelt could not help but wonder what happened do admit I Pavlichenko they had been dear friends during the tour but she had no way of contacting her from behind the Iron Curtain mrs. Roosevelt traveled to the Soviet Union but of course she got a lot of pushback from the government it was incredibly difficult to find out where Pavlichenko actually lived when Ellen Roosevelt eventually did find a Pavlichenko had returned to her hometown and finished her studies of the newly rebuilt Kiev University she finished her master's degree in history instead of becoming a teacher she was given the more prestigious job as a research specialist for the Soviet Navy she had gotten married again and was living a happy and comfortable life Lyudmila Pavlichenko passed away in 1974 when she was 58 years old but the story of her bravery has lived on in 2015 a Russian movie called the battle force of estoppel was made based on her story even to this day no other woman has been able to surpass her kill account of 309 cementing her as the greatest female sniper in history so I really hope you enjoyed that video if you did please do give us a thumbs up below and don't forget to subscribe we've got brand new videos just like this several times a week so hit that subscribe button then the notification bell if you want to actually find out when we put these videos out other videos linked to on the screen now from the archives and if you're looking for even more from me check out my other channel called today I found out you'll find a link to that below and as always thank you for what [Music]

Channel: Biographics

Views: 734,994

Keywords: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Extraordinary Sniper, legendary sniper, famous sniper, Soviet sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko awards, Lyudmila Pavlichenko life, Lyudmila Pavlichenko early life, Lyudmila Pavlichenko's death, Lyudmila Pavlichenko biography, Lyudmila Pavlichenko bio, biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, greatest female sniper in history

Id: DjHkik2cYMQ

Length: 17min 5sec (1025 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2019