When Germany, invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, perhaps it was the biggest mistake Hitler made that forced several thousand troops into a land that many would die from cold rather than war. What was even more astounding was the fact that thousands of common people especially women who rose up from the cities of Russia to join the army. Clerks, cooks, nurses all enlisted and were trained for a unique role of becoming Women snipers. Over 2000 were trained and among them some gained fame like former Kindergarten teacher Tanya Baramzina who notched upo 16 kills on the Belorussian front. While many photos existed, an entire batch was colorized by Russian translator Olga Shirnin and the results were remarkable. Take a look at Russian female snipers.
Nicknamed Lady Death, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was one of the most feared Russian female snipers in WWII having picked off 300 Nazis. Pavlichenko from Ukraine joined the Red Army’s 25th Chapayev Rifle Division in June 1941 as one of the 2000 female snipers picked for the lethal job. She fought in Odessa and Sevastopol on the Crimean border where she notched up a total of 309 kills including 29 enemy snipers.
Pavlichenko survived the war after she was removed from combat duty because of injuries sustained in Mortar fire. She was wounded four times and even took a blast of shrapnel to her face. Pavlichenko was the most successful female sniper in Combat history. She was awarded the gold star of the hero of the Soviet Union and her image is also on a postage stamp.
Roza Shanina was responsible for 59 confirmed kills and was labeled by a Canadian newspaper as the “unseen terror of east Prussia”. She enlisted after the death of her brother in 1941. Shanina served in the battle of Vilnius and was the first woman sniper to be awarded the Order of Glory. She was killed in action from shrapnel injuries sustained while protecting a wounded commander during the East Prussian offensive. Shanina was only 19 when she entered the war.
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Nadezhda Kolesnikov was a sniper volunteer who served on the Volkhovsky front in 1943. She had 19 confirmed kills. Like Kolesnikov, 800.000 female combat soldiers served in the Russian army as tank gunners, snipers, soldiers, pilots and machine gunners. The survival rate was extremely low and among the 2000 enlisted and trained snipers, only 500 survived the war. Kolesnikov was awarded the medal of courage.
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The youngest sniper of the Russian army at 17. Kalugnina may have been the youngest but like Pavlichenko, she was one of the deadliest too notching up 257 kills on the 3rd Belorussian front. She was moved to the Leningrad front to fight for the defense of the city and remained there till the end of the war.
Ziba Ganiyeva was from Azerbaijan. She served a sniper in the Red Army’s 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division and was confirmed for 21 kills. As a sniper Ganiyeva was also a radio operator and a spy who crossed into enemy lines 16 times. She fought in the battle of Moscow and was heavily wounded spending 11 months in a hospital. She was awarded with the medal of the defense of Moscow, combat order of the red order and banner of the red star. Ganiyeva returned to higher studies after the war attaining a candidate of sciences degree in philology. An interesting aspect of Ganiyeva was the fact that she had also acted in films before joining the war.
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Lyuba Makarova was credited with 84 kills. Makarova was one of the 500 who survived the war and returned soon after to her hometown in perm a decorated war hero. She was famous for her role on the Kalinin front and the 2nd Baltic front. Makarova was awarded the order of glory 2nd and 3rd class.
Olga Shirnin feels that while black and white images remain a piece of history, the world itself wasn’t monochrome during the war. Even more so it would be interesting to know how images in history really looked in color. Below is the image of two more snipers, a young Zeba Denoise and Yvegenia Makeeva who was credit with 68 kills.
The entire set of photographs of Russian female snipers were colorized by translator Olga Shrinina who said "Sometimes a picture can say more than many words and I'll be glad if people learn more about Russia and its people through my colorings, especially about our brave women. It was a phenomenon and no other country had so many female soldiers, snipers, pilots, medicals"