Russian assassin known as Lady Death.

Lyudmila was just 14 years old when she took a job the Arsenal munitions factory.

Although it wasn’t the ideal position for a girl of her age, her family needed the money. And even more importantly the Soviet Union required her to show her faith in their newly formed government.

Russian Assassin is Born

This was a dramatic departure from what the country had known for the past 300 years. Until the October Revolution happened , Russia was ruled by Czar Nicholas. However when his entire family was assassinated by the Bolshevik take-over in 1917, the country descended into a one party state known as Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

So Lyudmila Pavlichenko was simply fulfilling her obligation when she took the job at the factory. But she wanted more than to be just another Soviet factory worker.

And it just so happens that one of the factory supervisors, Fyodor Kuschenko belong to a shooting circle. He would often boast about his shooting abilities telling the on-listeners, including Lyudmila how good he was at hitting the bullseye.

Lyudmila set out to show him what she could do, completely unaware she would someday show the world as well … that she would become a Russian Assassin, eventually known as Lady Death. One day after work, Lyudmila convinced Fyodor to take her to the range with him where he introduced her to her first rifle: a small-bore, single-shot TOZ-8, from the still-extant Tula arms factory.

The first four shots Lyudmila fired all found their marks at 25 meters.

Lyudmila soon joined OSOAVIAKhIM, a paramilitary youth program to familiarize citizens with weapons and proper etiquette. There she took part in numerous shooting competitions, even aspiring to achieve the “Voroshilov Marksman” badge, second degree, which entailed not just sharpshooting, but also navigation, grenade throwing and physical training.

After a four-year stint in the Arsenal munitions factory, and the birth of her son Rostislav, Lyudmila enrolled at Kiev University, where she took an interest in politics, ancient history and English.

Russian Assassin Hears the Call of War

In her second year at the University, with the clouds of war gathering, she decided to refresh her marksmanship skills by enrolling in the two-year OSOAVIAKhIM sniper course. It was here that Lyudmila was taught by the Soviet Union’s legendary Alexander Vladimirovich Potapov, already one of the country’s great marksman.

After Lyudmila graduated from OSOAVIAKhIM sniper school in 1939, German tanks echoed over the the Polish landscape, kicking off WWII in a fittingly gruesome marriage of violence and machinery. Though it took a little over a year, those tanks eventually rolled all the way to the border of the USSR, changing Lyudmila’s life in a way that would forever scribe her name in history as Lady Death, a Russian assassin.

In late June of 1941 Lyudmila enrolled in the 25th Chapayev Rifle Division.

It was obvious to her commanding officers that Lyudmila knew how to use a gun. So they issued her an actual sniper rifle. But it wasn’t to her liking and she quickly went to work re-fitting the gun to her requirement.

For instance she removed the wood along the entire length of the handguard groove, essentially creating a makeshift free-floating barrel. The gunstock tip she filed down, so the barrel would fit more snugly. She also needle filed the bolt mechanism to ensure reliable function.

Finally, at long last, her sniper rifle was ready. And her regiment commander’s wasted no time in assigning her first mission.

Germans Tried to Recruit Her

She was ordered to take out two Romanian officers who, collaborating with the Germans, had taken up residence in a nearby house. It was a bit of an inauspicious start, as it took her seven shots before hitting her two marks.

With every mission she was sent on, her marksmanship skills improved. All told, Lyudmila killed 309 enemy combatants while fighting primarily across Odessa, Moldavia and Sevastopol. Of these 309 confirmed, 36 were opposing snipers whom she would stalk and counter-snipe, some for days at a time.

One of these she recounted stalking for three whole days. When asked how she finally won, Lyudmila simply remarked “he made one move too many.”

Lyudmila became such a thorn in the side of the Germans that they attempted to aid in her defection from the Soviet Union by offering her chocolate and an officer’s rank. And because they couldn’t get close to her, they made the offer over loudspeakers.

When that didn’t work, they began threatening her, warning that she would be torn to shreds. But she was not afraid. She was after all, dedicated to the cause of the Soviet Union. And they in turn rewarded Lyudmila for her efforts, promoting her all the way to Junior Lieutenant.

Eventually, Lyudmila’s luck ran out. In June 1942, she was wounded one time too many times. Her sniper career came to a halt when an artillery barrage blew off half her right ear. Even still, her usefulness to the USSR was far from over.

Her frontline days at an end, Lyudmila received a heroine’s welcome in Moscow, and her exploits were published far and wide to inspire morale for the war effort. She even traveled to the U.S. where she met Eleanor Roosevelt. In fact it’s said the two formed a close personal friendship, which lasted long after Lyudmila returned to the Soviet Union.

Just An Ordinary Russian Citizen

When the war finally drew to a close, she returned to Kiev, completing her masters in history at the age of 28.

She maintained this level of activity for some years, even getting the chance to see her old friend Mrs. Roosevelt again in 1957, when she visited Moscow. Ultimately however, the stresses of battle, the severity of her wounds, and the poor quality of Soviet health care took it’s toll on Lyudmila.

She died in 1974, at only 58 years of age. When asked about her time in the Russian military, she would probably tell you, “that she was just an ordinary soldier of the Soviet Union.”

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