She alone killed 309 enemies. Then Stalin sent her to Washington

He killed 309 enemy soldiers in just ten months. Then Stalin made a decision that seemed incomprehensible: to withdraw her from the front and send her to Washington. The Soviet Union had discovered that your best sniper It could also become one of her most effective diplomatic weapons, a mission that would take her from the fighting in Sevastopol to the White House at the decisive moment of World War II.

From history student to most feared woman. When Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in June 1941, Lyudmila Pavlichenko He studied History at the University of kyiv. Years before he had started practicing shooting sports almost out of pride, after hearing a neighbor brag about his aim and deciding to prove that a woman could shoot just as well.

That hobby led her to train as a sniper while working in an arms factory, although the Red Army was not willing to admit women into combat units. Only after insisting and demonstrating her skill with the rifle did she manage to join the 25th Rifle Division, beginning a military career that would change her life and turn her into a legend.

Ten months were enough. His baptism of fire came near Odessa, where he shot down two enemy soldiers at long range and began a progression almost impossible to believe. During the campaigns of Odessa, Moldavia and, above all, the siege of sevastopolPavlichenko accumulated 309 confirmed casualtiesamong them at least 36 German snipers and other Axis armies.

The figure could have been even higher, since each death needed a witness to be officially validated. Her ability to camouflage, wait for hours, and shoot with precision made her a nightmare for the Wehrmachtwhich even dedicated specific resources to locate and eliminate it before it continued to decimate its troops.

Germany tried to buy it and ended up fearing it. Pavlichenko’s fame quickly reached the other side of the front. According to would later relateGerman soldiers used loudspeakers to try to intimidate her, offered her chocolate, a supposed officer’s rank and better conditions if she deserted, and even threatened to tear her “into 309 pieces”, a direct reference to the casualties she suffered. had already accumulated.

Far from impressing her, those threats confirmed that his reputation had crossed enemy lines. During the fighting she suffered several wounds and continued fighting as long as she could, convinced that each shot prevented more civilians and Soviet soldiers from dying under the Nazi advance.

Stalin understood that his best weapon was not a rifle. In the summer of 1942, a serious wound caused by shrapnel changed course of his career. However, the reason he disappeared from the front was much more strategic than medical. The Soviet Union was going through one of the most delicate moments of the war and Stalin desperately needed convince the United States and the United Kingdom to open a second front in Western Europe to relieve German pressure on the Red Army.

It was then that he made a surprising decision: withdraw the most effective sniper in the country and cturn her into an ambassador of the Soviet cause. He had killed 309 enemy soldiers, and now he had to try to change the course of the war with speeches instead of shots.

From the Sevastopol front to the White House. At age 25, Pavlichenko became the first Soviet citizen to visit the White House. There she was received by Franklin D. Roosevelt and established a close friendship with the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, who accompanied her during a tour of the United States and later Canada and the United Kingdom.

Before packed auditoriums he explained what it was like to fight on the front lines and sent a message that would go down in history: “I am 25 years old and I have already killed 309 fascist occupiers. Gentlemen, don’t you think you have been hiding behind my back for too long?” That phrase perfectly summarized the mission entrusted by Moscow: pressure allies to accelerate their military participation in Europe.

They expected a celebrity, they found a soldier. The trip also revealed the enormous cultural clash between both countries. While Pavlichenko talked about trenches, casualties and military strategy, much of the American press seemed more interested in his physical appearance. Some journalists asked her if she used makeup before fighting, how she wore her hair or if her uniform was too unfeminine.

His response became another of the great quotes of World War II: “There’s no rule against it. But who has time to think about powdering your nose when a battle is going on out there?” On another occasion he showed his indignation because they criticized the length of your skirt soldier and responded that he wore that uniform with pride because it was stained with the blood of combat, while others seemed to care more about the clothes than the war.

Neither invincible heroine nor simple propaganda icon. Pavlichenko’s public image was used intensively by soviet propagandasomething that has led some historians to debate the extent to which the Kremlin exploited his figure. However, this political use does not detract from its widely documented military merits. He was part of the approximately 2,000 women female snipers who served in the Red Army during the war, of which only about 500 survived the conflict.

After returning from his international tour trained new shootersshe finished her university studies and worked as a historian for the Soviet Navy, although she never managed to completely shake off the physical and psychological consequences of the front, aggravated by the death of her partner during the war and by alcoholism problems that marked her final years.

Your most important mission. Lyudmila Pavlichenko She died in 1974, converted into a of the great heroines of the Soviet Union, decorated with numerous medals and even remembered in songs and films. However, its story goes far beyond the impressive number of enemies killed. In a conflict where millions of soldiers fought with rifles and cannons, Stalin understood that that young Ukrainian woman could better serve your country by speaking from a setting hidden among the ruins of Sevastopol.

Few trajectories summary so well World War II like his: first he terrorized the Wehrmacht from the sights of a rifle, then he tried to convince the world that the war could only be won if Western democracies stopped watching and started fighting.

Image | Wikimedia, Library of Congress

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