As a rule, in every publication dedicated to the Soviet snipers of the Great Patriotic War, the legendary female sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko is mentioned. Well, of course - Hero of the Soviet Union! On her account 309 destroyed fascist invaders! It would seem that there can be no doubt about her exploits. However, upon closer examination of her combat biography, many things will seem, to put it mildly, rather strange. However, let's start in order.

So, according to the biographical descriptions of Pavlichenko, she began to fight near Odessa on August 6 or 10, 1941 as part of the 54th Razinsky Rifle Regiment of the famous 25th Chapaevskaya Rifle Division, and killed her first two enemies in the battle near Belyaevka. True, already here there are doubts about the reliability of the information, since the 54th regiment from August 6, for the whole month, acted as part of the battle group of Colonel Monakhov in the Eastern sector of the defense of Odessa, mainly in the Gildendorf area (where the village of Kotovsky is now located ).

It is curious that according to some articles on the Internet, Pavlichenko fought not in a simple unit, but as part of a sniper platoon, the commander of which was 23-year-old Lieutenant Vasily Kovtun. In the same platoon, there was allegedly another female sniper from Odessa, Genya Golovataya, who was also "famous for her well-aimed shots." According to some sources, once “the Germans threw their sniper platoon against Kovtun's platoon. Apparently, they decided to quickly deal with the Soviet shooters. The mass duel dragged on for several hours, Kovtun's platoon lost more than half. At the same time, our snipers, of course, "lay down" most of the "German snipers." However, this "mass duel" is highly doubtful, since only Romanian units participated in the battles near Odessa, and from the Germans - only one infantry regiment and several small artillery units. In addition, neither the Germans, nor the Romanians, had snipers at all then, especially sniper units.

In general, as it was customary then to say, “the glory of our snipers thundered all over the front”, and about the most famous - Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who “shot 187 fascists on the outskirts of Odessa”, was known not only to the defenders of the city, but also to the enemies who “ they were terrified of her." However, despite such a loud fame, Pavlichenko for a long time, for some reason, was not awarded, although several Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR were issued on awarding the defenders of Odessa with orders and medals.

In all the Decrees, in the long lists of those awarded, there are many real battle heroes - commanders, pilots, artillerymen, machine gunners, anti-aircraft gunners, Red Army soldiers, Red Navy ... We note, however, that orders and medals were also awarded to many persons who clearly did not go to bayonet attacks and even never not holding weapons. Among them are cooks and bakers, production managers, clerks and draftsmen of headquarters, translators, propaganda instructors, executive secretaries of divisional committees, editors and deputy editors of newspapers, typists and telephone operators, artists of front-line brigades, military lawyers and NKVD investigators (well, how could it be without them!) ... However , in this case, we are of little interest in how, for example, the artist Steinberg received the Order of the Red Star, how the telephonist Kulchitskaya and the bread carrier Blyakher deserved the medals "For Military Merit", or how and for what many others received awards. Who knows, maybe they really accomplished some feats? However, we are extremely interested in why the names of sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko are not on the lists of awardees. After all, all the media claim that in the battles for Odessa, Pavlichenko destroyed as many as 187 enemy soldiers and officers! And all this in just two and a half months! At that time, not a single Soviet sniper had such a fantastic achievement. Yes, for such a combat score, any sniper would have long been presented to the title of Hero! However, we repeat, neither the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, nor any order, nor at least the medal "For Military Merit", which happened to be awarded even for such dubious "feats" as "hardworking to the degree of illness for his work" or “takes part in the socio-political life of the unit,” Pavlichenko did not receive then. The Decrees on awards do not contain the names of the deceased commander of the sniper platoon Vasily Kovtun, or Marchenko who replaced him, nor the "legendary" Genya Golovataya, nor anyone else from the "sniper platoon" in which Pavlichenko served. Naturally, the question arises - why? After all, some of the distinguished snipers of other units received their well-deserved awards. So, the Orders of the Red Banner were awarded to the Red Army soldier V.F. Shapovalov and the Red Navy N.I. Shvaronok. The award documents also describe the exploits of these snipers. For example, it is said about Shapovalov that he "does not throw out a single cartridge without hitting the target and daily knocks out from 27 to 40 fascists." So, in the battles on September 13, 1941, Shapovalov destroyed 80 enemy soldiers, and on September 15, another 50 (although, to be honest, these numbers are very doubtful! ). Apparently, Shvaronok also shot accurately: for example, on September 18, he shot 40 enemies ...

The medal "For Courage" was awarded to the Red Navy sniper A.P. Terin. The sniper corporal P. M. Tutashvili was presented for the same medal, however, for some reason he did not receive it. The sniper of the 25th division N. D. Suchkov was also presented for the award, who, having fired 95 shots, destroyed 85 fascists. Why, after all, did political officers and commanders not present Pavlichenko, the “thunderstorm of the fascists,” for the award? Is it because few people believed in 187 Nazi soldiers and officers “killed” by her?

When leaving Odessa, on October 16, 1941, the 25th division, in which Pavlichenko served, was transferred to the Crimea. Here, defending Sevastopol, Pavlichenko from her sniper rifle by March 16, 1942 "killed 72 more fascists", i.e. Pavlichenko's combat account had already approached 260 killed enemies, including almost 30 German snipers. Incredible record! The successes of many famous Soviet snipers who have already been awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, such as I. D. Vezhlivtsev, P. I. Golichenkov, A. A. Kalinin, S. P. Loskutov, V. N. Pchelintsev, F. A Smolyachkov and others were much more modest: only from 100 to 155 destroyed fascist warriors. And Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who far surpassed all other Soviet snipers, “Symbol of the Defense of Sevastopol”, is still without awards. How so? Strange, very strange...

And only on April 24, 1942, she was given ... no, not the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but ... just a medal "For Military Merit"! Together with her, this medal was awarded to several more snipers of Sevastopol, whose combat score did not exceed 20-30 disabled enemies. How so? She, the most productive of the Soviet snipers, “with whose name the Soviet soldiers went into battle,” was so depersonalized and “equalized” with novice shooters ?!

Apparently, there were serious doubts about the veracity of Pavlichenko's combat account, for example, in relation to her success in fighting enemy snipers. And, by the way, she herself involuntarily confirms this with one of her statements: “... The German snipers taught me a lot, and their science went in favor. They used to catch me, when they caught me, put me on the ground. Well, I'm shouting: "Machine gunners, save!" And until they give a couple of bursts from a machine gun, I can’t get out of the shelling. And the bullets whistle over my ear all the time and land literally next to me, but not at me.

What did I learn from the German snipers? They taught me, first of all, how to put a helmet on a stick so that you could think that it was a person. It used to be like this: I see a Fritz standing. "Well, - I think, - mine!" I shoot, but it turns out that I only hit the helmet. It even got to the point that she fired several shots and still did not realize that this was not a person. Sometimes even lost all self-control. And during the time you are shooting, they will find you and begin to ask a “concert”. I had to be patient here. They put more mannequins; just like a living Fritz stands, you also open fire. There were cases here that not only snipers, but also artillerymen were carried out with this.

Well, as they say, no comment. In fairness, it should be noted that the number of "destroyed enemy soldiers and officers" by other Sevastopol snipers was also in great doubt. The declared successes of snipers amazed everyone's imagination, reaching up to 100 or more per day (a record number - "173 shot fascists" - was credited to snipers on May 2). And, for example, in April 1942, 1,492 fascists killed by them were recorded at the expense of Sevastopol snipers. However, in reality, the German 11th Army lost only 458 people killed and 50 missing, as well as 1,865 wounded on the territory of the entire Crimea this month. By the way, we note that the enemy troops suffered losses mainly from artillery and mortar fire, and the losses from snipers, according to statistics, amounted to no more than 5-10 percent ...

In addition to describing the combat activities of Pavlichenko, we will also mention some very important facts in the life of a female sniper: her injuries, contusions and other cases of “temporary incompetence”. So, she received her first shell shock at the very beginning of her stay at the front, in August 1941, during an air raid. Fortunately, the shell shock was insignificant and Pavlichenko remained in the regiment. The second contusion from a shell explosion, around August 10-11, turned out to be more serious with partial hearing loss, and Pavlichenko ended up in the Odessa hospital for three weeks. And the first wound in the head (a fragment went tangentially) - Pavlichenko received in a battle near the village of Tatarka on October 12, 1941, after which she ended up in the medical battalion of the 25th Infantry Division. Together with the medical battalion, Pavlichenko was evacuated to the Crimea on the ship Jean Zhores. After treatment, she returned to the regiment only on November 9, 1941, that is, she did not take part in the battles for almost a month. Pavlichenko received a second, more severe wound and shell shock near the Mekenzia farm near Sevastopol, tentatively on December 19, 1941. Then a shell fragment hit her in the right shoulder at the shoulder blade and, from the battlefield, she was pulled out by another sniper, 36-year-old junior lieutenant Alexei Kitsenko, who later became her front-line husband. This serious injury cost Pavlichenko at least another month in the hospital. But for the longest time, she was put out of action by the death of her beloved, who, in front of Pavlichenko, had his arm torn off by a fragment, after which he died on March 4, 1942. The nervous shock experienced by Pavlichenko was so strong that her hands began to tremble, and there was no question of using her as a sniper. Given all this, the command sent Pavlichenko on a long vacation to improve her health, in which she was until the very end of May 1942, that is, she was not on the front line for three months. She received a third wound and another shell shock on June 16, 1942, when she was at the headquarters of the 54th regiment, which was hit by German heavy artillery. At the same time, a shell fragment cut Pavlichenko's right cheek on the cheekbone and tore off the lobe of his right ear. Once again in the medical battalion, she, along with other wounded, was taken out on June 19 on the L-4 submarine from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk. Pavlichenko no longer had a chance to get to the front.

It is easy to calculate that out of the eleven months of the service of the sniper Pavlichenko, she spent almost half of them not in sniper ambushes, but in a hospital bed. In addition, let's not forget that Pavlichenko was a woman and, like any other woman, went out of action every month for several days, as they say, for purely "female reasons." It turns out that she destroyed three hundred enemy soldiers and officers in just 5-6 months. How such a fantastic result could be achieved in such an extremely short period of time cannot be explained by any sane person, at least a little knowledgeable in military affairs.

In total, as we can see, Pavlichenko was wounded three times and shell-shocked four times, that is, she repeatedly "shed blood for the Motherland." But, even for this, none of the male commanders, for some reason, considered it necessary to present Pavlichenko, at that time another of the rare female snipers, for a worthy reward.

The defense of Sevastopol ended in a grandiose catastrophe for the defenders of the city: almost a hundred thousand people were killed or captured. This tragedy was a huge moral shock for the entire Soviet people. In order to somehow smooth out the unpleasant impression of the defeat, in all the media of that time they began to talk about the “massive and unprecedented heroism of the defenders of Sevastopol” who inflicted “enormous losses on the German fascist troops.”

It should be noted here that by that time, not only in the Sevastopol region, but also on the entire Soviet-German front, the Red Army had suffered catastrophically huge losses in manpower and, naturally, was in dire need of replenishment. However, there were already not enough men, so it was decided to enlist women in the army en masse. The country needed heroines whose exploits would inspire Soviet women to voluntarily join the ranks of the Army. The image of the martyr Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya by that time had already pretty faded. In addition, her arson of stables and residential buildings (with all the ensuing consequences for civilians and unfortunate horses!), From the point of view of universal morality, were, to put it mildly, not very attractive. Names of new heroines were needed. Then, finally, they remembered the “thunderstorm of the Nazis” and, two weeks after the fall of Sevastopol, on July 16, 1942, Senior Sergeant Pavlichenko was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Recall that at that time Pavlichenko had 309 enemies on her account, “shot” by her, and, as we calculated, in less than six months! We emphasize that none of the Soviet snipers had such performance, either before or after Pavlichenko. Why, for this phenomenal record, was she not given the Golden Star of the Hero? After all, they awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to another Sevastopol sniper, foreman N.P. Adamiy, although there were about 200 fascists on his combat account? By the way, Adamia not only shot accurately, but also trained more than 80 fighters in sniper business. And the platoon commander, senior sergeant Pavlichenko, for some reason, did not teach any of his subordinates the art of a sniper. On account of another Sevastopol sniper, Corporal I. I. Bogatyr, there were only about 75 enemies, however, he also received the title of Hero. But what about Pavlichenko?! Apparently, the command believed that she had not yet earned the Gold Star. However, the career of the "best Soviet sniper" was just beginning...

Already being treated in a hospital in Novorossiysk, she received a sudden call to Moscow, in the GPU of the Red Army. The Main Political Directorate, having far-reaching propaganda plans, began to actively "work" with the newly minted heroine candidate. Soon, Pavlichenko, after appropriate processing, as a member of the "people's embassy" in August 1942 was sent to England, the USA and Canada, where she began to publicly shame our allies for not wanting to open a second front. It is curious that Pavlichenko, like another member of the delegation, also our noble sniper Hero of the Soviet Union V.N. And, if Pchelintsev willingly demonstrated his skill, then Pavlichenko always stubbornly refused to shoot. Of course, one could attribute this to female coquetry, but, most likely, Pavlichenko was terribly afraid of a trite “miss” ...

It is interesting that Western reporters, greedy for the sensational headlines of their articles, called Pavlichenko none other than “Miss Colt”, “Lady Death”, “Bolshevik Valkyrie” and endowed her with other loud epithets. Already in our time, after the release of the pretentious film "Unbroken" ("Battle for Sevastopol"), our writers and journalists, no less greedy for exalted headlines, began to call Pavlichenko nothing more than "The woman who changed the course of history." Apparently, from a great mind, they believe that if Pavlichenko in America had not delivered her signature speech about the gentlemen hiding behind her back, then the second front in Europe would never have opened. In general, in their opinion, it turns out that it was not such leaders as Stalin, Hitler, Roosevelt and Churchill who changed the course of history, but a simple senior sergeant ...

Pavlichenko's almost year-long tour of the Allied countries as an agitator left the Soviet political leaders satisfied. First, on June 3, 1943, she was awarded the rank of lieutenant, and soon after returning from abroad, by a separate Order to the troops of the North Caucasian Front dated October 23, 1943 (almost a year and a half after the end of the battle for Sevastopol!) she was, finally , awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union ("Gold Star" No. 1218). Then, on May 15, 1944, another promotion followed, and Pavlichenko became a senior lieutenant. In general, a career was made and, for Pavlichenko, the glory of the best sniper among women was firmly entrenched ...

Perhaps the oddities in Pavlichenko's combat biography are an exception? Well, let's remember that, as they say on the Internet, along with Pavlichenko, the sniper Genya Holovataya, as they say, "originally from Odessa" was in the 25th Chapaev division. Now Genya Solomonovna (Samoilovna), under the surname Peretyatko, lives in the United States of America. It is very curious what they write about her on many Internet sites: “... Having got to the front at the age of 18 as a professional sniper and taking part in fierce battles, Genya made an invaluable contribution to the victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany. During the war years, she destroyed one and a half hundred reptiles. Cavalier of many orders. Now she is one of the most honored veterans of the Great Patriotic War in the Russian-speaking community of New York.” Although, we note, there are absolutely no documentary details about her combat activities in the battles for Odessa. And, most importantly, despite the 148 "reptiles killed by her", which Genya likes to talk about in his numerous interviews, there are no award documents for the "cavalier of many orders" either. Apparently, therefore, as one of her fellow tribesmen in Brighton Beach writes, “at the end of the 70s, Genya Peretyatko left a not very grateful country” and moved to the States for permanent residence. I was offended, probably, that there were no award documents for her ...

Many Internet sites also mention the mysterious female sniper Either Rugo or Luba Rugova. Who is she, where did she come from, where did she fight, in what units? Nothing is known! There is only scanty information that she was only 20 years old, and she "destroyed" neither more nor less - 242 or as many as 275 fascists! However, it is in vain to look for her name among the Heroes of the Soviet Union, among those awarded orders or, at least, medals. And in the numerous literature devoted to the events of the Great Patriotic War, a sniper with that name is also not mentioned. And all because it is an obvious myth, or someone's outright lie.

No less mysterious are female snipers Ekaterina Zhdanova and Tari Vutchinnik, who counted exactly 155 “killed” each. As with Libo Rugo, there is absolutely no other information about them. So where did they come from? It turns out that these names were named by a certain Hasso G. Stakhov in his book “The Tragedy on the Neva. Eyewitness account”, published in Munich in 2001. Is it possible to believe the opus of this "eyewitness" "Herr Hasso G. Stakhov", especially considering that among the thousands of books about the war published by us, these names are not mentioned anywhere and, of course, no award documents for these female snipers either No?

It must be honestly admitted that not only the successes of some well-known female snipers, but also male snipers, cause serious doubts. For example, the successes of the most productive Soviet sniper Mikhail Ilyich Surkov, who accounted for as many as 702 (!) Killed fascists, but who, for some reason, was never awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But, this is a topic for a separate study ...

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, Kyiv province of the Russian Empire (now the Kiev region of Ukraine). When she was 15, the family moved to Kyiv. At that time, Lyudmila was already married and bore her husband's surname - Pavlichenko.
Here is what Vladimir Yakhnovsky, a senior researcher at the Kyiv 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 Kyiv. 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 Kyiv 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 Kyiv. 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. A total of 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. The 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."

Video of Lyudmila Pavlichenko's speech in the USA:

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.

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 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

Lyudmila Pavlichenko in the movie "Battle for Sevastopol"

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.

Russian movie poster

Ukrainian movie poster

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"

There are many historical inaccuracies in the film. For example, the picture says that Lyudmila's father had the surname Pavlichenko, thereby turning Lyudmila into an ethnic Ukrainian (in the film she sings a song in Ukrainian), although she was Russian and called herself a "Russian soldier". Not a word is said about Lyudmila's first marriage and the birth of her child before entering the university. From the film, we can conclude that Lyudmila went to the front, remaining a virgin.
In the film, Lyudmila speaks fluent English during her visit to America, while she did not know English at that time.
At the same time, the film is undoubtedly recommended for viewing by those who are interested in the Great Patriotic War and the personality of Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko.

Clip of Polina Gagarina "Cuckoo" with frames from the film "Battle for Sevastopol"

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

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

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

Context

Sniper Lyudmila and a film about her

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

Battle for Sevastopol

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Traveling America

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

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

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

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

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

Great war heroine

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

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

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

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

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

She was born on July 1, 1916 in the village of Belaya Tserkov, now a city in the Kyiv region, in the family of an employee. After graduating from school, she worked for 5 years at the Arsenal plant in Kyiv. Then she graduated from the 4th year of Kyiv State University. While still a student, she graduated from the school of snipers.

In July 1941, she volunteered for the army. Fought first near Odessa, and then near Sevastopol.

By July 1942, a sniper of the 2nd company of the 54th rifle regiment (25th rifle division, Primorskaya army, North Caucasus Front) Lieutenant L. M. Pavlichenko from a sniper rifle destroyed 309 enemy soldiers and officers, including 36 snipers.

On October 25, 1943, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for courage and military prowess shown in battles with enemies.

In 1943, Major of the Coast Guard Lyudmila Pavlichenko graduated from the Shot course. She did not participate in the hostilities any more.

In 1945 she graduated from Kiev State University. In 1945 - 1953 she was 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. Author of the book "Heroic Reality". Died October 27, 1974. Buried in Moscow.

Awarded with orders: Lenin (twice), medals. The name of the Heroine is carried by the vessel of the Marine River Economy.

In the fighting Sevastopol, the name of the sniper of the 25th Chapaev division, Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko, was well known. The enemies, with whom Sergeant Pavlichenko had his own scores, also knew her. She was born in the city of Belaya Tserkov, Kyiv region. After graduating from school, she worked for several years at the Kiev plant "Arsenal", then entered the history department of Kyiv State University. As a student, she mastered the skill of a sniper at the Osoaviakhim special school.

She came from Kyiv to Odessa to complete her thesis on Bogdan Khmelnitsky here. Worked in the city scientific library. But the war broke out and Luda volunteered for the army.

The future most productive female sniper received her first baptism of fire near Odessa. Here, in one of the battles, the platoon leader was killed. Lyudmila took command. She rushed to the machine gun, but an enemy shell exploded nearby, and she was shell-shocked. However, Lyudmila did not go to the hospital, she remained in the ranks of the city's defenders, boldly smashing the enemy.

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

Every day at 3 o'clock in the morning, Lyudmila Pavlichenko usually went into an ambush. She either lay for hours on wet, damp ground, or hid from the sun so that the enemy would not see. It often happened: in order to shoot for sure, she had to wait a day, or even two.

But the girl, a courageous warrior, knew how to do it. She knew how to endure, knew how to shoot accurately, knew how to disguise herself, studied the habits of the enemy. And the number of Nazis destroyed by it grew all the time ...

In Sevastopol, a sniper movement was widely deployed. In all parts of the SOR (Sevastopol defensive region), specialists in marksmanship were allocated. With their fire, they destroyed many fascist soldiers and officers.

On March 16, 1942, a rally of snipers was held. Vice-Admiral Oktyabrsky, General Petrov spoke at it. The report was made by the chief of staff of the army, Major General Vorobyov. This rally was attended by: a member of the Military Council of the Fleet, Divisional Commissar I. I. Azarov and a member of the Military Council of the Primorsky Army, Brigadier Commissar M. G. Kuznetsov.

Hot speeches were made by snipers, well known in Sevastopol. Among them was Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko, who had 187 exterminated fascists in Odessa and already 72 in Sevastopol. She undertook to bring the number of killed enemies to 300. The famous sniper Noy Adamia, a sergeant of the 7th Marine Brigade, and many other. All of them undertook obligations to destroy as many fascist invaders as possible and to help train new snipers.

From the fire of snipers, the Nazis suffered heavy losses. In April 1942, 1492 enemies were destroyed, and only in 10 days of May - 1019.

One day in the spring of 1942, a German sniper brought a lot of trouble on one of the sectors of the front. It was not possible to liquidate it. Then the command of the unit instructed Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who by that time was already a recognized shooter, to destroy him. Lyudmila established that the enemy sniper acts like this: he crawls out of the trench and moves closer, then hits the target and retreats. Pavlichenko took a position and waited. I waited a long time, but the enemy sniper showed no signs of life. Apparently, he noticed that he was being watched, and decided not to rush.

In the evening, Pavlichenko ordered her observer. leave The night has passed. The German was silent. When dawn broke, he began to cautiously approach. She raised her rifle and saw his eyes in the scope. Shot. The enemy dropped dead. She crawled up to him. In his personal book it was recorded that he was a high-class sniper and during the fighting in the west he destroyed about 500 French soldiers and officers.

"Historian by education, warrior by mentality, she fights with all the ardor of her young heart" - this is how the newspaper Krasny Chernomorets wrote about her on May 3, 1942.

Once Lyudmila entered into combat with 5 German machine gunners. Only one managed to escape. Another time, a brave girl - a warrior and sniper Leonid Kitsenko was instructed to get to the German command post and destroy the officers who were there. Having suffered losses, the enemies from mortars fired 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.

In the fall of 1942, a delegation of Soviet youth, consisting of the secretary of the Komsomol Committee N. Krasavchenko, L. Pavlichenko and V. Pchelintsev, at the invitation of youth organizations, left for the USA and then for England. At that time, the Allies were greatly concerned about the need to carry out not only military training, but also the spiritual mobilization of youth forces. The trip should have contributed to this goal. At the same time, it was important to establish links with various foreign youth organizations.

The Soviet people were greeted with extraordinary enthusiasm. Everywhere they were invited to rallies and meetings. Newspapers wrote about our snipers on the front pages. The delegation received a stream of letters and telegrams. In the United States, Pavlichenko met with the president's wife. Eleanor Roosevelt was very attentive to Lyudmila.

Both in the United States and in England, the trip of the delegation of Soviet youth received a very great response. For the first time during the war years, the British met representatives of the youth of the struggling Soviet people. Our envoys carried out their lofty mission with dignity. The speeches of the delegates were full of confidence in the victory over fascism. The people who brought up such youth cannot be defeated - there was a unanimous opinion of the British ...

Lyudmila Mikhailovna was distinguished not only by high sniper skills, but also by heroism and selflessness. She not only destroyed the hated enemies herself, but also taught other warriors the art of sniping. Was wounded. Her combat score - 309 destroyed enemy soldiers and officers - is the best result among female snipers.

In 1943, the brave girl was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (the only one among female snipers who was awarded this title during her lifetime. Others were awarded posthumously).

In everyday life, Lyudmila was simple, did not boast of her merits. The Museum of the Armed Forces has an exposition dedicated to Lyudmila Pavlichenko. There are presented gifts to the famous sniper - a woman: a rifle, an optical sight and much more. But the most touching gift is an ordinary slingshot from children.

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Word to readers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After reading them, Lyudmila Mikhailovna set to work.

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

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

Begunova A.I.,

compiler

Chapter 1
factory walls

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

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

Naturally, the last word in family disputes - if there were any - 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, chiselled figure, with lush dark brown hair and brown eyes that illuminated her face with some unusual light.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You should think about work,” he said.

- What job? my sister was surprised.

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

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

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

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

- At the Arsenal plant ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was an interesting time.

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

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

Here's what I've been processing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Still, you need to calm down.

“I have to,” I agreed.

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

Do you think this will help?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Meet me!

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

First of all, Fedor offered to check the “fitness of the rifle”, to find out if it is suitable for me. Everything worked out well here. The back of the head of the butt rested against the shoulder cavity, with the brush of 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 phalanges. It remains, tilting your head to the right, press your cheek against the comb of the butt and look at the front sight with your open right eye. It passed exactly in the middle of the aiming bar and was visible exactly to its full size.

“Now you can shoot,” Fyodor said.

- What about ammo?

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

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

The rifle was back in my hands. Diligently repeating all the techniques of "attaching", I fired the first shot. "Small" (as we called "TOZ-8") had a small impact. In addition, on the advice of Fyodor, I tightly pressed her to my shoulder, so that I did not experience any unpleasant sensations. Kushchenko allowed me to shoot three more times, and then went to look at the target. He brought this sheet of paper with black circles to the firing line, where I was waiting for him not without excitement, looked at me carefully and said:

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

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

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

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

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

We also had lectures on the history of "firearms". It began in the 14th century with a matchlock gun, when the development of technology first made it possible to use the metal properties of gunpowder, then guns with a flintlock and then with a capsule lock appeared and became widespread. But a truly revolutionary coup happened at the end of the 19th century: magazine rifles appeared with rifling in the barrel and longitudinally sliding bolts, which contributed to 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 human hands. When it was created, the latest inventions were always used. The technological solutions necessary for its manufacture were quickly perfected and brought to production, measured in thousands and millions of pieces. In the most successful samples that have earned world recognition, engineering genius finds its embodiment in an ideal, finished external form. After all, "firearms" are in their own way ... beautiful. They are pleasant to take in hand, it is convenient to use them. They deserved the love of the people who went with them to the war, incredible in its cruelty. Some (the same three-line Mosin rifle, the Shpagin submachine gun, the Degtyarev light machine gun, the Tulsky, Tokarev pistol) even became symbols of the era...

However, most of all my friends loved shooting.

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

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

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

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

At the end of 1935, on a Komsomol voucher, I got into a two-week course for draftsmen and copyists, graduated with honors and began working in a machine shop as a senior draftsman. I liked this job. Of course, it was different from the work of a lathe operator, but it also required concentration and accuracy. Machine tools hummed behind the wall, and we, in our office, in silence, among drawing boards and paper rolls, were engaged in reconciliation of drawings, preparing them for transfer to production workers. Relations in the team were warm. My passion for bullet shooting was accepted 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 a paramilitary discipline, matured, I felt like a person capable of being aware of my intentions and actions, achieving my goal. The factory Komsomol organization also helped me move on to a new stage in my life: in the spring of 1935, I received a referral to the workers' faculty at Kiev State University. Then another year she worked in a turning shop and studied in the evenings. Then she successfully passed the exams and in September 1936 became the owner of a student card of the Faculty of History of KSU. Thus, my childhood dream came true. True, in our course I was probably the oldest of the students.