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 prolific female sniper of the Second World War, had to face misunderstandings during a visit to the United States, where she was nicknamed "Lady Death". But American reporters, greedy for sensation, expecting to see a "killing machine" in female guise in front of them, found themselves in front of an ordinary young woman, who had suffered terrible trials that did not manage to break her will.
She was so sweet, welcoming. Looking at Lyudmila Pavlichenko, it was impossible to imagine that this is an experienced sniper, on whose account 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 this even possible ?! All sentimentality was removed by the first battle. The young neighbor, who was sitting next to him in the trench, suddenly jerked, arms outstretched, and fell onto his back.
“He was a wonderful happy boy who was killed right in front of my eyes,- later recalled Lyudmila. - 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 an English teacher. Father - Major of the NKVD. Until the age of 14 she studied at secondary school number 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 Luda 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 had no idea how it would turn out for her. Mom was the first to notice the rounded belly. On the same evening, Luda confessed to her parents about the connection with Pavlichenko. Finding him and forcing him to marry his deceived daughter was not difficult for NKVD Major Mikhail Belov. But you can't be cute by force. Although Lyudmila married in 1932 to Alexei Pavlichenko, 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. Wore the surname Belova as a girl, Lyudmila after the divorce retained the name 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 scare Luda - after the ninth grade, she began to study at night school, while working as a grinder at the Kiev plant "Arsenal". Relatives and friends helped to raise little Rostislav.

In 1937, Lyudmila Pavlichenko entered the history department of the Taras Shevchenko Kiev State University. Like most students of the anxious pre-war period, Lyuda was preparing, “if there’s a war tomorrow,” to fight for the Motherland. The girl went in for gliding and shooting sports, showing very good results.

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

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

When the war began, Lyuda immediately went to the military registration and enlistment office, presented documents on her rifle training, and asked to be sent to the front. According to the received specialty, the girl was enrolled as a sniper in the 25th Chapaev Infantry Division. The soldiers, who had already sniffed the gunpowder, smiled bitterly: "We ourselves fall for nuts, why did they send a woman to such a heat?"
The company commander was more restrained, but 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 breastwork 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 the questions from the commander disappeared.

War is not the best place for love. But times do not choose. Lyuda Pavlichenko was 25 years old, and the thirst for life was desperately arguing with the triumphant death around. In a war, when the nerves are strained to the limit, and the closest and dearest is the one who helps you survive, it happens. For Lyudmila, such a person was the commander - junior lieutenant Kitsenko. In December 1941, Luda was wounded, and Kitsenko pulled her out from under 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 decided otherwise ...
The sniper profession is full of dangers. Often, after his shots, the enemy opened hurricane fire from cannons at the designated 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.
The 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 splinter would have broken her spine. Kitsenko tore off his hand, and now Luda 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 pass without a trace for Lyudmila. For some time she was in shock, her hands were trembling, there was no question of shooting. But then it was as if something died in this smiling girl. Now she went into the "brilliant green" after dark and returned when dusk deepened over the positions. Her personal account of the destroyed Nazis grew at an unprecedented rate - one hundred, two hundred, three hundred ...

Moreover, among the 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 in early 1942, an ace sniper arrived near Sevastopol. The German used unexpected tactics for snipers.
Having found the target, he left the shelter, approached and fired, and then disappeared. Pavlichenko had to work hard to win a sniper duel from 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 seizure of Sevastopol by the Nazis.
The legendary 25th Chapaevsk division, in which Lyudmila Pavlichenko fought, died. The last of its fighters drowned the banners in the Black Sea so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy.

By the time of the evacuation from Sevastopol, on account of Lyudmila Pavlichenko there were 309 killed 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 again there was no point in throwing a woman who had been repeatedly wounded, shell-shocked, and survived personal losses into the heat. Now she was faced with 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 was coming to the United States, who had personally killed more than 300 fascists, caused a sensation. It is unlikely that American journalists understood exactly how a Russian heroine should look, but they certainly did not expect to see a pretty young woman whose photo could easily adorn the covers of fashion magazines. Apparently, therefore, the thoughts of the reporters at the first press conference with Pavlichenko's participation went somewhere very far from the war.

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

Lyudmila, smiling sweetly, replied:
- For such a question in our country you can get it in the face. Come on, come closer ...

This response won over even the most "sharp-toothed sharks" in the American media. Delighted articles about the Russian sniper appeared in almost all newspapers in America.

"Lady Death" - the Americans admired her, and country singer Woody Guthrie wrote the song "Miss Pavlichenko" about her.
In the summer heat, in the 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 have died from your weapons ...

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

Later, Eleanor Roosevelt invited Lyudmila Pavlichenko on a trip around the country. Lyudmila spoke before the International Student Assembly in Washington, before the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and also in New York, but many people remember her speech in Chicago.
"Gentlemen, - a clear voice resounded over the crowd of thousands of people. - I am twenty five years old. At the front, I have already managed to destroy three hundred and nine fascist invaders. Don't you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long ?! "
The crowd froze for a minute, and then exploded with a furious noise of approval ...

In America, she was presented with 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 had gathered at the Toronto Unified Train Station.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko among workers at a small arms factory in Liverpool. 1942.

After her return, 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 research assistant at the General Staff of the Navy. Later she worked in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans.
Her post-war personal life was also successful - she got married, raised a son, and was engaged in social activities. Lyudmila Mikhailovna died in October 1974, finding peace at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
The "Lyuda" sniper rifle in the computer game "Borderlands 2" is named in honor of Lyudmila Pavlichenko. Also in honor of Lyudmila Mikhailovna, the name of Pavlichenko bears 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.

The Soviet leaders, who were in great need of heroines, in every possible way glorified the military exploits of this woman sniper. However, some authors believe that the stories about her are more fiction than truth.

The line that separates fiction from reality is as subtle as the trail left in the air by a bullet from a rifle barrel. And on top of that, it quickly disappears. A mixture of truth and fiction is inscribed in fiery lines in the pages of history. This is exactly what happened to the native of Ukraine Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most famous female sniper of the Red Army.

According to official Soviet historiography, she killed 309 enemy soldiers and officers. But her military exploits are somewhere in between reality and fiction, fabricated by a country that desperately needed motivation for its soldiers during the Second World War.

Vasily Zaitsev, Tanya Chernova ... The list of snipers whose exploits were exaggerated in the USSR is not so small. For example, opponents of Zaitsev believe that he invented his famous duel with a famous German sniper to embellish the abilities of Soviet fighters.

Chernov is credited with killing 80 enemy soldiers in three months, which is questioned by some analysts.

Therefore, it is not surprising that modern historians, in particular Lyuba Vinogradova, turned their eyes to Pavlichenko, whose biography is replete with inaccuracies and inconsistencies. At least, this is exactly what the author herself asserts in her new work "Angels of Vengeance", which is an extensive and conscientious analysis of the role of Soviet female snipers in World War II.

How the legend was forged

"Possessing a persistent and independent character, the capable student graduated from the ninth grade of high school in her city," writes the historian. At the age of about 15, her life changed dramatically, she gave birth to a son, Rostislav, who, according to Vinogradova, destroyed her marriage to student Alexei Pavlichenko.

“After that, her family moved from the modest town of Belaya Tserkov to Kiev,” Vinogradova writes in her new book.

Then, as indicated in most sources, she combined her studies with the work of a grinder due to the fact that one of the relatives took over the care of her baby.

But where did she learn to shoot? How did you acquire such accuracy, thanks to which, a few years later, she became one of the most famous female snipers in the history of the USSR? As Pavlichenko herself writes in her memoirs, he acquired high-precision shooting skills in the defense-sports society OSOAVIAKHIM.

Volunteer to the front

In 1941, when Hitler attacked the USSR, Pavlichenko was 24 years old, she studied at the history department of Kiev State University. In those days, women were not yet taken into the army. And yet Lyudmila went to the military registration and enlistment office and asked to be sent to the front. The military was somewhat surprised and offered her a number of positions that, in their opinion, were more suitable for women.
“But she had her own thoughts. She completed an initial military training course at a sniper course in Kiev and received the Voroshilovsky shooter badge at regional competitions, ”writes history popularizer Charles Stronge in the book“ Snipers in Battle: History, Weapons, Techniques ”(“ Sniper in Action: History, Equipment, Techniques ").

Pavlichenko was so eager to fight that the military commissar arranged for her to check for accuracy, which the future heroine passed brilliantly. But this incident remained forever in her memory. Here is what she wrote in this regard in her memoirs: “I got into the army when women were not yet accepted there. I was offered to become a nurse, but I refused. "

And from that moment on, real events begin to intersperse with fiction. This is confirmed by the fact that most authors skip over a whole period of time and begin the story about our heroine with her participation in the defense of Odessa, besieged by Romanian troops.

“Her shooting ability was quickly appreciated and she became a sniper,” writes Charles Strong. Sakayda in her work specifies that Pavlichenko began to fight as part of the 25th rifle division named after V.I. Chapaev near Odessa in August 1941, emphasizing her high skill.

First battles

Pavlichenko destroyed the first two enemy servicemen in the vicinity of the city of Belyaevka, located about 50 kilometers from Odessa, when her unit received an order to hold the height. From that moment on, Sakaida writes, the number of enemy soldiers she killed quickly increased to 187! And this, according to her biographers, in just ten weeks, and after two concussions and a minor injury.

According to Strongzh, Pavlichenko initially used a Mosin-Nagant rifle with a 4x magnification telescopic sight. However, she soon settled on the Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle. At the beginning of the war, thousands of them were produced, but these rifles were difficult to properly store in the field. Sakayda does not write anything about Pavlichenko's first weapon, but clarifies that she preferred the SVT-40, since there was no need to cock the hammer after each shot.

Sevastopol

After the Soviet troops left Odessa, the military unit to which Pavlichenko was assigned was transferred to Sevastopol and spent eight months there. Fighting in the most difficult conditions, she demonstrated the highest combat prowess, despite the cold and lack of food. Sometimes it came to the point that you had to eat insects.

It was during the defense of Sevastopol that Pavlichenko became one of the best snipers in the Red Army. According to her biography, it was during the defense of this city that she fought dozens of duels with German snipers sent specifically to eliminate Pavlichenko.

“During one of the duels, she had to lie motionless for 24 hours, tracking down an experienced enemy. When, at dawn on the second day, Pavlichenko finally managed to catch him in the front sight and eliminate him, she took not only his rifle, but also the list of victims, from which it followed that he began to serve as a sniper in Dunkirk and by that time had already destroyed 500 soldiers and officers, ”writes Vinogradova.

But this was not the only duel with German snipers. The most famous was the one about which one Soviet magazine told. According to this story, thanks to which Pavlichenko gained fame, she once noticed an experienced German observer hiding in the bushes. She immediately began to follow him in order to destroy. But this turned out to be not an easy matter, since the German used all his tricks against her. First of all, he hooked his helmet onto a stick and raised it so that Pavlichenko would open fire and thereby reveal her location. But she did not succumb to this ruse.

Then, again according to the version of the Soviet magazine, the German released the cat and the dog in order to divert the attention of the Soviet sniper. "This is not a very common technique, and any inexperienced sniper could succumb to it, allowing the enemy observer to complete his task," - stated further in the article.

The last trick of the German cost him his life. Desperate to establish the location of the enemy, he made a stuffed soldier dressed in German uniform and lifted it above the bushes. This was his fatal mistake. “Thus, he revealed himself and made it clear that he would soon appear,” writes Vinogradova. Noticing the shine of the lenses of the binoculars, Pavlichenko pulled the trigger.

As a result of all these stories, Pavlichenko gained fame among the German command. As they say, since then on the battlefield one could often hear appeals to her from the Germans with a proposal to go over to their side in exchange for all kinds of rewards. Pavlichenko herself said that after she was awarded the military rank of "lieutenant" General Ivan Petrov himself ordered her to select and train a group of snipers.

There were many legends around her name. It was not for nothing that Pavlichenko herself often said that she caused the real horror of the Germans. And this is understandable, because by June 1942, she had already destroyed 309 enemy servicemen, including about a hundred officers and from 33 to 36 snipers (depending on the source).

The end and the beginning

And yet you cannot escape fate. In June 1942, as a result of a shell explosion, she received such serious injuries to her face that she was evacuated in a submarine. The case itself is unprecedented. By that time, she said, the Germans had already threatened to destroy and dismember her body into 309 pieces in revenge for their dead comrades.

But they could never carry out their plans, because after a difficult recovery, the Soviet leadership decided that Pavlichenko was too valuable a symbol and forbade her to return to the battlefield. On July 16, 1942, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Pavlichenko, as part of the delegations, visited the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, where she spoke about the exploits of Soviet snipers. The most famous visit took place in August 1942 to the United States. Together with Pavlichenko, another sniper Vladimir Pchelintsev went on the trip. “Why did you choose two snipers and not two pilots or two tank commanders? Because snipers are a source of pride. The Germans were afraid of them, and the Soviet press paid considerable attention to them, ”Vinogradova writes.

Context

Sniper Lyudmila and a film about her

War is Boring 06/20/2016

Ukrainian sniper flaunts murders

Today 09/06/2017 ABC.es 09/24/2016

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Soviet sniper

Smithsonian 03/01/2013
In the United States, Pavlichenko took part in conversations and answered very uncomfortable questions posed by arrogant journalists. Some of them sounded very defiant for that time: "What kind of underwear does Mrs. Pavlichenko prefer and what color?", "Do the girls at the front paint their lips?" As Pchelintsev, who later traveled with her, said that the 26-year-old girl was not taken aback and made a good impression on the reporters.

Then she was received at the White House by President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife. Here is what the newspapers wrote in those days: “26-year-old lieutenant Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a charming warrior, one of the best female snipers in the Soviet Army, did two things yesterday that I could hardly imagine: she arrived in Washington, becoming the first Soviet serviceman to visit the capital of the United States and invited to the White House by President Roosevelt and the first lady of the country.

During her stay in the United States, she also met Charlie Chaplin, who said the following about her: "It's incredible that these pens killed hundreds of Nazis without misfiring."

In the USSR, Pavlichenko graduated from Kiev University. However, after World War II, she did not work as either a historian or a shooting instructor. “She worked at the headquarters of the Navy and in the Committee of War Veterans, without leaving any noticeable trace there,” Vinogradova writes. She died on October 10, 1974.

10 implausible statements from Pavlichenko

1.300th liquidation

In his memoirs, Pavlichenko claims that the 300th liquidation was carried out on July 12, 1942 (on her birthday). To be more precise, she writes that it was a gift that she made to herself in Sevastopol. But, according to the statements of the Soviet authorities, the city was commissioned on July 3. Consequently, on July 12, she could not hit her target there. Moreover, according to the most widespread version, the military medical service evacuated her from the city in ... June 1942!

2. The number of destroyed enemy soldiers

Pavlichenko has repeatedly claimed that the Germans promised to dismember her into 309 pieces and thus avenge her murdered comrades. This seems unlikely, since, according to Vinogradova, it is unlikely that she eliminated so many enemy soldiers, and the Germans could not find out about this in a few days.

3. Dogs and cats against snipers

The first press report on Pavlichenko said the German sniper used the animals to try to divert her attention. Sounds very strange for that time. “All indications are that this is the only known case of using dogs and cats to divert the attention of a sniper,” Vinogradova emphasizes.

4. Chief of snipers

Pavlichenko said that General Ivan Petrov ordered her to lead a squad of snipers, whom she herself was supposed to train in the period from 1941 to 1942. Vinogradova considers it impossible: “There were no such units in the Red Army at that time. In addition, Pavlichenko graduated from service at the front with the rank of junior lieutenant, under which, at best, she could only command a platoon, ”Vinogradova notes.

5. Groups of German snipers who were supposed to destroy her squad

Pavlichenko said that once the Germans sent a group of experienced snipers in order to destroy her squad. Vinogradova considers this to be impossible, since in those years when Pavlichenko was at the front, German snipers worked alone and were very few in number.

6. Awards

The awards could tell the true story of Pavlichenko. According to Vinogradova, it is very strange that she did not receive any reward for participating in the defense of Odessa, although she destroyed 187 enemy soldiers there.

“Snipers were awarded medals for every ten enemy soldiers killed or wounded and the Order of the Red Star for every twenty. If 75 killed enemy soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, then why was she not given anything? ”Vinogradova asks.

Pavlichenko was awarded two top awards - the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - but this happened after she was wounded and evacuated in 1942.

7. Wounded in the face

Pavlichenko claimed that after being wounded in the face, she was evacuated in a submarine. But the photographs taken afterwards do not show any scars on the face.

8. The woman who refused to shoot

According to Vinogradova, there are documents confirming that Pavlichenko refused to demonstrate her skills during her trip to the United States, although journalists often asked her to do so. The accuracy of the Soviet snipers was shown by Pchelintsev, who was with her in the delegation. Pavlichenko herself fired several shots only once, and the result turned out to be "useless", as Pchelintsev wrote about it.

9. Inspection of liquidated

In her biography, Pavlichenko writes that her duels with other snipers always ended in the same way: having destroyed the enemy, she searched him and took away documents and a rifle.

Vinogradova considers this to be contrary to the very tactics of the actions of snipers, who approached the corpse only after making sure (sometimes after several hours) that there were no enemy soldiers nearby who could detect their location. “In their reports, other snipers never mention such details,” Vinogradova emphasizes.

10. A strange end to a career

It should also be emphasized that after the Second World War, Pavlichenko did not take up the training of snipers, but simply left the army.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial board.

Pavlichenko Lyudmila Mikhailovna- Sniper of the 54th Infantry Regiment (25th Infantry Division (Chapaevskaya), Primorskaya Army, North Caucasian Front), lieutenant. Destroyed 309 German soldiers and officers (including 36 enemy snipers). She was awarded the Gold Star medal of the Hero of the USSR and two Orders of Lenin.
She was born on July 12, 1916 in Ukraine in the city of Belaya Tserkov. Until the age of 14 she studied at school number 3, then the family moved to Kiev.

After finishing the ninth grade, Lyudmila worked as a grinder at the Arsenal plant and at the same time studied in the tenth grade, completing her secondary education.
At the age of 16, in 1932, she married Alexei Pavlichenko and took his last name. In the same year she gave birth to a son, Rostislav (died in 2007). Soon she divorced her husband.

While working at Arsenal, she began training at a shooting range. “When I heard the neighbor boy bragging about his exploits on the range,” she said, “I decided to prove that girls are also capable of shooting well, and I began to train hard and hard.” She also went in for a gliding sport, graduated from the OSOAVIAKHIM school (Society for the Promotion of Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction).
In 1937, Pavlichenko entered the history department of Kiev University with the aim of becoming a teacher or scientist.

When the Germans and Romanians invaded the territory of the USSR, Lyudmila Pavlichenko lived in Odessa, where she underwent her diploma practice. As she later said, "the girls were not taken into the army, and I had to go to all sorts of tricks to become a soldier too." Lyudmila was persistently advised to go to the nurse, but she did not agree. To make sure of her ability to wield weapons, the military staged an impromptu "test" for her not far from the hill, which was defended by Soviet soldiers. Lyudmila was handed a gun and pointed to two Romanians who worked with the Germans. "When I shot both of them, I was finally accepted." Pavlichenko did not include these two shots in her list of victorious ones - according to her, they were just trial.

Private Pavlichenko was immediately enlisted in the 25th Infantry Division named after Vasily Chapaev. Lyudmila was impatient to get to the front. “I knew that my mission would be to shoot people,” she said. "In theory, everything was clear to me, but I understood that in practice everything was completely different." On her first day at the front, she faced the enemy face to face. Paralyzed by fear, Pavlichenko was unable to raise a weapon, a Mosin rifle of 7.62 mm caliber with a 4x telescope of the PE type. 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. "

junior lieutenant Lyudmila Pavlichenko arrived at the sniper course

Near Odessa L. Pavlichenko received the baptism of fire, having opened a battle account. In one of the battles, she replaced the deceased platoon commander, she was wounded by a shell that exploded nearby, but she did not leave the battlefield and generally refused to go to the hospital.

In October 1941, the Primorsky army was transferred to the Crimea and, after fighting in the north of the peninsula, defended Sevastopol. Lyudmila fought as part of the renowned 25th Infantry Division. VI Chapaeva, which was a member of the Primorsky Army.


Every day, as soon as dawn breaks, the sniper L. Pavlichenko went "hunting". For hours, or even whole days, in the rain and in the sun, carefully camouflaging herself, she lay in ambush, waiting for the appearance of the "target." More than once she came out victorious in duels with German snipers.
Often she went to combat operations with Leonid Kutsenko, who came to the division at the same time as her.

Once the command ordered them to destroy the enemy command post discovered by the scouts. Imperceptibly making their way at night to the area indicated by the scouts, the snipers, disguised themselves, lay down and waited. Finally, suspecting nothing, two officers approached the entrance to the dugout. Sniper shots rang out almost simultaneously, and the slain officers fell. Several more people immediately jumped out of the dugout at the noise. Two of them were killed. A few minutes later, the place where the snipers were, the Nazis subjected to fierce shelling. But Pavlichenko and Kutsenko retreated, and then, having changed their position, again opened fire on the emerging targets.


Having lost many officers and signalmen, the enemies were forced to leave their command post.
The Nazis, in turn, hunted our snipers, set traps, sent snipers and submachine gunners in search of them.
Once, when Pavlichenko and Kutsenko were in ambush, the Nazis found them and immediately opened a hurricane of mortar fire. Leonid was seriously wounded by fragments of a nearby exploding mine, his arm was torn off. Lyudmila managed to carry him out and make her way to her own people under fire. But it was not possible to save Leonid - the wounds were too severe.

Pavlichenko avenged her fighting friend. She exterminated enemies herself and, together with other experienced snipers, taught the fighters to shoot marksmanship, passing them combat experience. During the period of defensive battles, she trained dozens of good snipers, who, following her example, exterminated more than one hundred Nazis.
Now the sniper Lyuda Pavlichenko operated in a mountain war. It was her first military autumn in the mountains and her first winter on the rocky land of Sevastopol.
At three o'clock in the morning she usually went into ambush. Sometimes she drowned in fog, sometimes she looked for a saving shelter from the sun breaking through the clouds, lay on the wet, oozing earth. You can only shoot for sure, and sometimes there was a road of patience a day or two before the shot. Not a single mistake - or you will find yourself, and there will be no salvation.

Once on Bezymyannaya, six machine gunners ambushed it. They noticed her the day before, when she was fighting an unequal battle all day and even the evening. The Nazis sat down over the road along which they were transporting ammunition to the neighboring division regiment. For a long time, on bellies, Pavlichenko climbed the mountain. A bullet cut off a branch of an oak tree at the very temple, another pierced the top of his cap. And then Pavlichenko fired two shots - the one who almost hit her in the temple fell silent, and the one who almost hit her in the forehead. Four living ones were shooting hysterically, and again, crawling away, she hit exactly where the shot was fired from. Three more remained in place, only one escaped.
Pavlichenko froze. Now you have to wait. One of them could pretend to be dead, and maybe he was waiting for her to move. Or the one who fled has already brought other submachine gunners with him. The fog thickened. Finally Pavlichenko decided to crawl to her enemies. She took the assault rifle of the dead man, a light machine gun. Meanwhile, another group of German soldiers approached and their indiscriminate shooting resounded out of the fog. Lyudmila answered now from a machine gun, now from a machine gun, so that the enemies would imagine that there were several fighters here. Pavlichenko was able to get out of this fight alive.

Sergeant Lyudmila Pavlichenko was transferred to a neighboring regiment. Too many troubles were brought by Hitler's sniper. He has already killed two of the regiment's snipers. As a rule, German snipers hid behind the front edge of their own, carefully disguised themselves, put on spotted robes with green stains - the spring of 1942 had already come.

This had its own maneuver: he crawled out of the nest and went to rapprochement with the enemy. Luda lay for a long time, waiting. The day passed, the enemy sniper showed no signs of life. He noticed the observer, but decided not to hit, wanted to track her down and lay her on the spot.

Lyuda whistled softly - ordered the observer, who was lying about fifty meters from her, to leave.

Stayed overnight. After all, the German sniper is probably used to sleeping in a dugout and therefore will be exhausted faster than she if she gets stuck here for the night. So they lay motionless for a day. In the morning the fog fell again. My head was heavy, my throat sore, my clothes were soaked with dampness, and even my hands ached.

Slowly, reluctantly, the fog cleared, brightened, and Pavlichenko saw how, hiding behind a model of driftwood, the sniper moved in barely noticeable jerks. Closer and closer to her. She moved towards. The stiff body became heavy and clumsy. Centimeter by centimeter, overcoming the cold rocky mat, holding the rifle in front of her, Luda did not take her eyes off the telescopic sight. The second took on a new, almost infinite extent. Suddenly, Luda caught sight of watery eyes, yellow hair, a heavy jaw. The enemy sniper was looking at her, their eyes locked. The tense face was distorted by a grimace, he realized - a woman! The moment was deciding life - she pulled the trigger. For a saving second, Luda's shot was ahead of him. She pressed herself into the ground and managed to see in the scope, as an eye full of horror blinked. Hitler's submachine gunners were silent. Lyuda waited, then crawled to the sniper. He lay there, still aiming at her.

She took out the Nazi's sniper book and read: "Dunkirk." There was a number next to it. More and more French names and numbers. More than four hundred French and British died at his hand. He opened his account in Europe in 1940, here, in Sevastopol, he was transferred at the beginning of the forty-second, and the figure "one hundred" was drawn in ink, and next to it the grand total was "five hundred." Luda took his rifle and crawled to her front edge.

At the rally of snipers, Pavlichenko talked about how, in the most difficult circumstances, she manages to teach her comrades to sniper. She did not hide from her students either the risk or the particular danger of her military profession. In April, at a sniper rally, she was awarded a diploma. The newspaper of the Primorskaya Army reported: "Comrade Pavlichenko perfectly studied the enemy's habits and mastered sniper tactics ... Almost all prisoners captured near Sevastopol, with a sense of animal fear, speak of our super-sharp shooters:" Most of all, we have been suffering most of the losses lately from the bullets of Russian snipers. " ...
Primorsky residents can be proud of their snipers! "

In Sevastopol it became more and more difficult, but Pavlichenko, overcoming the malaise from wounds and concussions, continued to fight with the Nazis. And only when all forces were exhausted, she went to the mainland in a submarine.

Until the last hour, the Chapaevsk division stood defending the city, having withstood an eight-month siege ..

Lieutenant Pavlichenko by July 1942 destroyed 309 Nazis from her sniper rifle. For courage, military skill, courage shown in the fight against the Nazis, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on October 25, 1943.

After Sevastopol, she was suddenly summoned to Moscow, to the Main Political Directorate.
She was sent with a delegation to Canada and the United States. During the trip, she attended a reception with the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. Later, Eleanor Roosevelt invited Lyudmila Pavlichenko on a trip around the country.

At the Soviet embassy in Washington.

Lyudmila has addressed the International Student Assembly in Washington DC, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and also in New York. In America, she was given a Colt, and in Canada - a Winchester. (The latter is on display at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces).
American singer Woody Guthrie wrote a song about her. In Canada, the delegation of the Soviet military was greeted by several thousand Canadians who had gathered at the Toronto Unified Train Station.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Mrs. Davis (wife of the American ambassador to the USSR).

Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Joseph Davis (US Ambassador to the USSR).

Many Americans remembered then her short but tough speech at a rally in Chicago:
“Gentlemen,” a clear voice echoed over the crowd of thousands of people. - I am twenty five years old. At the front, I have already managed to destroy three hundred and nine fascist invaders. Don't you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long ?!
The crowd froze for a minute, and then exploded with a furious noise of approval ...

Upon her return from the United States, 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 research assistant at the General Staff of the Navy. Later she worked in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans.
She was a member of the Association for Friendship with the Peoples of Africa, and has repeatedly visited African countries.

In 1957, 15 years after a trip to the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, already a former first lady, came to Moscow. The Cold War was in full swing, and the Soviet authorities controlled every step of it. After a long wait, Roosevelt finally got permission to meet with her old friend Lyudmila Pavlichenko. Their meeting took place at Lyudmila's house, in a two-room apartment in the city center. At first, old acquaintances talked, observing all the formalities dictated by their position, but suddenly Pavlichenko, under an unknown pretext, dragged the guest into the bedroom and slammed the door. In private, Lyudmila gave vent to her feelings: half crying or half laughing, she hugged the guest, thereby showing how glad she was to see her. Only then could they, in a whisper, away from prying eyes and ears, recall the incredible trip around the United States, which made them friends.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko died in Moscow on October 27, 1974.

iov75 in post Women's unthinkable tales of war .
In 1916, a beautiful girl, Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko, was born in the town of Belaya Tserkov in Ukraine. A little later, her family moved to Kiev. After finishing the ninth grade, Lyudmila worked as a grinder at the Arsenal plant and at the same time studied in the tenth grade, completing her secondary education.
In 1937 she entered the history department of Kiev State University. As a student, like many then, she was engaged in gliding and shooting sports. The Great Patriotic War found Lyudmila in Odessa at her graduation practice. From the very first days of the war, Lyudmila Pavlichenko volunteered for the front.
Lieutenant Pavlichenko fought in the 25th Chapayevskaya rifle division. She took part in battles in Moldova, in the defense of Odessa and Sevastopol. By June 1942, Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko had already killed 309 German soldiers and officers. In a year! For example Mathias Hetzenauer, who was probably the highest scoring German sniper in WWII in the four years of the war - 345.
In June 1942 Lyudmila was wounded. Barely recovering, she was sent with a delegation to Canada and the United States. During the trip, she attended a reception with the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. Many then remembered her performance in Chicago. " Gentlemen, - a clear voice resounded over the crowd of thousands of people. - I am twenty five years old. At the front, I have already managed to destroy three hundred and nine fascist invaders. Don't you feel, gentlemen, that you've been hiding behind my back for too long?! " The crowd froze for a minute, and then exploded with a furious noise of approval ...
After her return, Major Pavlichenko served as an instructor at the Shot sniper school. On October 25, 1943, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war in 1945, Lyudmila Mikhailovna graduated from Kiev University. From 1945 to 1953 she was a research assistant at the General Staff of the Navy. Later she worked in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans. She died on October 27, 1974 in Moscow. She was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Take a look at her beautiful face.

For myself, I have long understood why in difficult situations women are often tougher and more desperate than men. Since ancient times, men have competed in one way or another: hunting, tournaments ... And also since ancient times, if a woman had to take up arms, it means that there were no longer any living defenders of men at the entrance to the cave or at the gate of the castle. Historically and from the point of view of nature, a woman is the last line of defense, behind her there are only children and decrepit old people, and there is no one to help her. It is with this attitude that we fight, if we suddenly have to fight. It cannot be otherwise, it is against our nature.

Now trolls and those close to them will run up, claiming that the place of a woman is "kinder, kirchen, kyuchen." I’ll tell all of them at once, so that later only to ban: "Who are you to show us our place? I don't have to answer, answer yourself."

A word to readers

Hero of the Soviet Union L.M. Pavlichenko is the only female sniper, whose personal account reaches 309 killed enemy soldiers and officers. She is one of the most well-known in our country and in the world RANGE participants of the Second World War. In 1942-1945. on the Soviet-German front, more than one hundred thousand leaflets were distributed with her portrait (and Lyudmila Mikhailovna was a beautiful woman) and the appeal: "Beat the enemy without a miss!" After her death in 1974, the name of Lyudmila Pavlichenko was given to the ship of the USSR Ministry of Fisheries, school No. 3 in the city of Belaya Tserkov, Kiev region, where she studied from first to 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 volunteered for the Red Army on June 26, 1941, together with her 54th rifle regiment, made the difficult path of 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 Chapayev rifle division, since now its personal score has increased to 309 killed enemies. But there are also lyrical pages. During the war, Lyudmila met her great love. A brave fellow soldier, junior lieutenant Alexey Arkadyevich Kitsenko became her husband.

By the 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 World Student Assembly. The Komsomol members were supposed to agitate for the early 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 battles in Sevastopol were distinguished by stubbornness and ferocity.

Having retired in 1953 with the rank of Major of the Coastal Service of the Navy, Lyudmila Mikhailovna remembered her front-line records. A historian by training, she was serious about her memoirs and believed that publishing them would require lengthy work in libraries and archives. She took the first step towards this in 1958, when, by order of the State Political Publishing House, she wrote a small documentary brochure (72 pages) “Heroic story. 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 on the front line and in the rear of the Sevastopol defense region from October 1941 to July 1942.

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

Close communication with her 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, a platoon commander of super-sharp riflemen 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 the successful operations of the Soviet Army in 1944 and 1945 began to be published, but also the truthful stories of the commanders and political workers of the Red Army about the difficult, even tragic beginning of the Great Patriotic War. These books include the memoirs of I.I. Azarov "Besieged Odessa" (M .: Voenizdat, 1966), collection "At the Black Sea fortresses" (M .: Voenizdat, 1967), where the former commander of the 25th Chapaevskaya division T.K. Kolomiets and colleague L.M. Pavlichenko, former Komsomol organizer of the 54th regiment Ya. Ya. Vaskovsky, memoirs of an ordinary participant of the Odessa defense N.M. Aleshchenko "They defended Odessa" (Moscow: 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 - the weapon that she knew very well and loved very much. In the 40-50s, such information was not allowed to be disclosed. However, without her, the story of the struggle of super-sharp shooters with the enemy would be incomplete. Remembering 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 have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War in no way contribute to the speedy implementation of the plan. Much was difficult to remember, many of the recordings were lost. In addition, she has already transferred 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 the Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol.

Unfortunately, a serious long-term illness prevented the famous heroine from completing the work in time and seeing the sniper's memoirs published. Fragments of this manuscript were preserved thanks to the efforts of Lyubov Davydovna Krasheninnikova-Pavlichenko, the widow of the son of Lyudmila Mikhailovna 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 post in the central office of this department as a reward for the conscientious performance of his duties.

He was a solid man, strict, devoted to the service. Starting at an early age as a mechanic at a large factory, he visited the fronts of the First World War, joined the ranks of the Communist Party - then it was called the RSDLP (b), - participated in revolutionary events in Petrograd, then served as a regiment commissar in the 24th Samara-Simbirskaya " Iron "division, fought with the White Guard detachments of Kolchak in the Middle Volga region, South 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 we mostly saw him in one outfit: a khaki jacket with a turn-down collar, with the Order of the Red Banner on his chest, navy blue breeches and chrome officer's boots.

Naturally, the last word in family disputes - if any happened - 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, as if 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 disciples loved her. Turning the lesson into a game, my mother achieved an excellent memorization of all European words that were strange to the Russian ear. Her children not only read well, but also spoke.

She worked with us just as persistently: with my older sister Valentina and with me. Thanks to her, we got to know Russian classical literature early, for the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Lev 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 Bila Tserkva, Kiev region. There I studied at school number 3, where my childhood and adolescence passed without care. We have a friendly company on Privokzalnaya Street. We played "Cossack robbers", in the summer we rode flat-bottomed boats along the local river Ros, walked in the old and very beautiful Alexandria Park, and in the fall we made forays into the surrounding gardens. I was the leader in a gang of teenagers because I shot the best with a slingshot, ran the fastest, swam well and was never afraid to start a fight, first hitting the offender on the cheekbone with my fist.

Yard entertainment ended when I was barely fifteen years old. And they ended suddenly, in one day. Looking back, I could compare it with the end of the world, with voluntary blindness, with loss of reason. This was my first, school love. The memory of her remained with me for the rest of my life in the form of the surname of this person - PAVLICHENKO.

Fortunately, my son Rostislav is not at all like his father. He has a kind, calm disposition and an appearance typical for members of our family: brown eyes, lush dark hair, tall, strong physique. Still, he belongs to the BELOV family and continues our traditions of serving the Fatherland with dignity. 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 him ...

We settled in a new place in Kiev rather quickly, began to get used to the big and noisy capital city a little. We saw little of our father; he stayed late at the service. 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. So soon the main conversation took place.

- What are you going to do now, dear children? - Dad asked us, slowly sipping hot tea.

“We don’t know yet,” Valentina answered first by right of seniority.

“You have to think about work,” he said.

- What kind of work? - my sister was surprised.

- About a good job, in a good place, with a good salary.

- But, dad, - I objected, - I have only seven years of education, I want to study further.

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

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

- To the Arsenal plant ...

If you move from the park "Askoldova Mogila", then the wide water surface of the Dnieper will stretch to the left, and the straight and not too long Arsenalnaya Street will begin on the right (in 1941 it was renamed to Moskovskaya - Note. comp.). At the beginning of the street there is a very impressive building. These are the Arsenal workshops built during the reign of 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 - light yellow, which is why the locals began to call the entire building "porcelain".

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

In Soviet times, a powerful defense enterprise also mastered the production of products needed for the national economy: plows, locks, steam-powered carts, equipment for mills and sugar factories. The "arsenals" worked with full dedication and in 1923 they received an award from the government of Ukraine - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

I liked the building of the plant 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 a large plank rustic, this structure seemed to have descended from an ancient battle engraving. All that was missing was a ditch under the walls, a drawbridge over it and a heavy gate, which would be guarded by warriors in shining armor.

My sister and I, after completing certain formalities (for example, signing a nondisclosure of state secrets), were assigned to the garrison of this "fortress". Valentina - a rationing, since she was already eighteen and she had a certificate of secondary education. Me - a laborer for my childhood (I was only 16) and lack of any professional skills.

Six months was enough for me to enter the rhythm of the factory life and make friends with the factory workers themselves. I was accepted into the Komsomol. In May 1934, I moved to the lathe shop, where I was a student for about a month, then I got the right to work independently and soon reached the qualification of a sixth grade turner.

It was an interesting time.

Arsenal was changing right before our eyes. New, already domestic machines came in, more advanced equipment was installed, new production facilities were put into operation, old premises were reconstructed. The factory people, seeing the efforts of the authorities aimed at the growth of industry, responded with shock work. By the way, the prices also grew noticeably, and in fact all the machine operators in our workshop worked on piece-rate pay.

I didn't have to complain either. I had a screw-cutting lathe with a speed control box "DIP300" ("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.

So I processed it.

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

The bluish-purple 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 factory, uniting people in work, provided them with the opportunity to effectively 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 classes: the theatrical "Blue Blouse", the Fine Art Studio, where they taught to draw, cut and sew, which is very useful for women, glider and shooting. In the assembly hall, wonderful festive evenings "Meeting of three generations" were regularly held, at which they honored the veterans of the revolution and the 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 a gliding circle. The newspapers wrote a lot about aviation and the exploits of aviators. So we enthusiastically attended theoretical classes and concentratedly took notes on the lectures of the gallant Air Force lieutenant on wing lift. However, the very first flight with an instructor cooled my ardor. When the grassy field of the airfield quickly and quickly rushed towards and then suddenly went abruptly down somewhere, my head was spinning, nausea came to my throat. “So the air is not my element,” I thought. - I am a purely earthly person and must rely on solid ground ... "

The instructor of the factory shooting circle Fedor Kushchenko worked in our workshop and constantly campaigned for young people, inviting them to go to the shooting range. He himself recently served military service in the Red Army, became interested in bullet shooting there and assured that there was something fascinating in the flight of a bullet and hitting it on 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 shaken my faith in my own capabilities, although in my youth - what to hide! - they seem limitless. In addition, I considered Kushchenko's enticing speeches to be ordinary red tape. My small but harsh life experience suggested: you should always be on your guard with males.

Once (it was at a Komsomol meeting) I got tired of listening to his tales. I answered Fyodor in an ironic tone. The guys sitting around appreciated my joke and started laughing out loud. At that moment, our Komsomol organizer was reading a rather boring report on the work of the Komsomol members on the early implementation of the shop's quarterly plan. He took this laugh personally and for some reason became very angry. A verbal skirmish arose between him and some of the 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 this ending, Fedor and I moved towards the exit. The working day was already over, our steps echoed in the deserted corridor. Suddenly Kushchenko said:

- Still, you need to calm down.

“It’s necessary,” I agreed.

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

"Do you think this will help?"

- Of course. Shooting is an occupation for calm people. Although innate abilities are also needed.

- What other abilities? - I could not resist a malicious question.

- The most real. Say, a great eye or accurate sense of a weapon, ”he replied, jingling with a bunch of keys from his leather jacket pocket.

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

Fyodor opened one of the cupboards and took out a brand new gun, not so long, just 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, about a million pieces were produced. A reliable, easy-to-use small-bore single-shot rifle with a sliding bolt, chambered for 5.6 × 16 mm rimfire, has served not only athletes, but also hunters.

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

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

- Meet!

Honestly, I thought the "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 setting up sometimes very bulky parts for processing on the machine, I did not 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, indicated that the designers took care of the convenience for the person wielding this weapon.

First of all, Fyodor suggested checking the "goodness of the rifle", to find out if it is suitable for me. Everything went well here. The back of the butt rested against the shoulder cavity, with my right hand I freely grabbed the neck of the butt and put my index finger - and my fingers are long - on the trigger between the first and second phalanx. It remains to tilt 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.

- And the cartridges?

- 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 shuddered from surprise. Kushchenko smiled:

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

The rifle was in my hands again. Diligently repeating all the "attachment" techniques, I fired the first shot. "Melkashka" (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 I did not experience any unpleasant sensations. Kushchenko let me 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 expecting him, not without excitement, looked at me attentively and said:

- It's amazing for a beginner. It is clear that the ability is there.

- Really congenital? - 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 circle were held once a week, on Saturdays.

They started by studying in detail the device of a small-bore 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 in which they taught the basics of ballistics. So, to my great surprise, I learned that the bullet does not fly to the target in a straight line, but because of the inertia of movement, 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 gun with a wick lock, when the development of technology for the first time made it possible to use the metal properties of gunpowder, then guns with a flintlock lock appeared and became widespread, then with a capsule lock. But a truly revolutionary coup happened at the end of the 19th century: magazine rifles with grooves in the barrel and sliding bolts appeared, which contributed to fast 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 hands of men. The latest inventions have always been used in its creation. The technological solutions required for its manufacture were quickly refined and brought to production, measured in thousands and millions of pieces. In the most successful, world-renowned models, engineering genius finds its embodiment in an ideal, complete external form. After all, "firearms" in their own way ... are beautiful. It is pleasant to take them in hand, it is convenient to use them. They earned the love of the people who went with them to the war, incredible in its cruelty. Some (the same three-line Mosin rifle, Shpagin submachine gun, Degtyarev light machine gun, Tula, Tokarev pistol) even became peculiar symbols of the era ...

However, most of all my friends loved shooting.

We practiced in a shooting range, hitting targets from a standing position, lying down, from a support, from a knee using a belt passed under the left hand. "Melkashka" had only an open sector sight with a movable collar 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 pulling on the trigger, 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's firing 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 orientation on the terrain, throwing a grenade, physical training (running, jumping, push ups). We successfully fulfilled these standards and then took part in the city competitions of Osoaviakhim in bullet shooting.

I would like to note that our circle was only one of several hundred subdivisions in the structure of the Society for Assistance to Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction, or - Osoaviakhim. This massive voluntary public military-patriotic organization appeared in our country in 1927 and played an important 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 parachutists to riflemen, machine gunners, drivers of vehicles, trainers of service dogs.

I placed the certificate of honor, earned at the Osoaviakhim competition, in a frame under the glass and proudly hung it on the wall in Valentina's and my room. Neither my sister nor my parents took my shooting hobby seriously. In our home conversations, they liked to play a trick on my passion for weapons. I could not clearly explain to them what force attracts me to a shooting range or a shooting range, what is attractive in an object equipped with a metal barrel, a wooden stock, a bolt, a trigger and a front sight, why it is so interesting to control the movement of the bullet to the target ...

At the end of 1935, on a Komsomol voucher, I entered a two-week course for draftsmen-copyists, graduated with honors and began working in a mechanical workshop 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. The machines hummed behind the wall, and in our bureau, in silence, among drawing boards and bundles of Whatman paper, we were checking drawings and preparing them for handing over to production workers. The relationship in the team was warm. My passion for bullet shooting was perceived here with understanding ...

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 paramilitary discipline, matured, felt like a person who was able to be aware of my intentions and actions, to achieve my goal. The factory Komsomol organization also helped me move to a new stage of life: in the spring of 1935 I received a referral to the workers' faculty at Kiev State University. Then she worked in a lathe shop for another year and studied in the evenings. Then she successfully passed the exams and in September 1936 she became the owner of a student card for the history faculty of KSU. Thus, my childhood dream came true. True, in our course I was probably the oldest of the students.