Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Lady Death: Lyudmila Pavlichenko

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

In 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a 24-year-old woman in Ukraine volunteered to join the Red Army. She was initially pressured to become a nurse like most women who volunteered, however, that wasn’t what she wanted to do. She wanted to be on the front lines. Within a year, she was to become one of the most lethal soldiers in all of the second world war. Learn more about Lyudmila Pavlichenko, aka Lady Death, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a 24-year-old woman in Ukraine volunteered to join the Red Army. She was initially pressured to become a nurse, like most women who volunteered. However, that wasn't what she wanted to do. She wanted to be on the front lines. Within a year, she was to become one of the most lethal soldiers in all of the Second World War. Learn more about Ludmila Pavlachenko, aka Lady Death, on this episode of Everything Everywhere daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story

where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about any of any other. It's not about any of the same. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. The woman we know as Ludmila Mikhailovna Pavlachenko was born Ludmila Belova in present-day Ukraine in what was then the Russian Empire in 1916.

She was admittedly a tomboy growing up and was always very competitive. When she was 14 years old, her parents moved to Kiev. While in Kiev, legend has it that she encountered a boy her age who was bragging about what a good shot he was with a rifle. She later noted, quote, I set out to show that a girl could do just as well as a boy, so I practiced a lot. End quote. She joined a local shooting club and began practicing. She quickly showed proficiency and earned the respected Voroshlyov sharpshooter badge, which was the Soviet civilian award for excellence in sharpshooting.

She was married very early at the age of 16 and had a son. It was this marriage where she took the name Pavlacchenko. However, the marriage didn't last very long and she and her young son moved in with her parents. She took a job at the Kiev Arsenal which manufactured armaments for the Soviet military. In 1937, she enrolled in a university with the intent of becoming history teacher. She competed on the track and field team in the pole vault and also attended a Soviet sniper school on the side to keep her marksmanship skills up to snuff. Like everyone in the Soviet Union, Ludmilla's world was turned upside down with the German invasion in June of 1941. By this time, she was in her fourth year at Kiev

University. When she heard news of the invasion, she was among the first group to go to the Odessa recruiting office to volunteer to fight in the war. At the time, like in most armies, what few women that were in the Red Army were regulated to support roles, Ludmilla was encouraged to become a nurse. Ludmilla, however, didn't want to become a nurse. She wanted to fight. She refused the position of a nurse and argued with the recruiting officer that she had been trained as a sniper and had proven her ability at marksmanship. The recruiter eventually relented and she was assigned to the Red Army's 25th Rifle Division. Just because she was assigned to an infantry unit as a sniper didn't mean she was actually doing any sniping. In fact, she wasn't even issued a gun. The only thing she was given was a single grenade. The lack of a weapon was due to weapons shortages and the fact that she was just considered low on the totem pole because she was a woman. The situation changed, however, on August 8, 1941. One of her comrades was hit, and he gave her his Massennegat model 1891 bolt action rifle. She later noted, quote, he was such a nice happy boy, and he was just killed next to me.

After that, nothing could stop me. End quote. Finally, with a rifle in her hand, she went to work. she quickly killed two Romanian soldiers who were a quarter mile or 400 meters away. And, FYI, Romania was one of the Axis Powers and contributed troops to the invasion of the Soviet Union. This was the beginning of her one-woman reign of terror. During the two-and-a-half-month-long siege of Odessa, which began the day she got her rifle, she had 187 confirmed enemy kills.

When she reached the level of 100, she was promoted to the rank of senior sergeant. When the Romanian forces took Odessa, she and her unit were evacuated by sea and sent to Sevastopol, where she fought in the siege of Savastopol for eight months. Not only did she rack up more enemy kills, but she was also training snipers as well. The students she trained combined had over a hundred enemy kills. She perfected her art. She would often go out in the morning and not return back to camp until the evening. She would crawl in our belly for hours to get a shot. She once reported laying down in the grass for 15 hours in a duel with another German sniper. Another sniper duel lasted a full three days.

In the end, she said, her opponent made one move too many. By the end of the siege of Sevastopol, she had 257 confirmed kills, and she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Word of her deadly accomplishments had spread. She had earned the nickname Lady Death. The Germans knew who she was. They would often use loudspeakers to try to bribe her to switch sides. They would say, quote,

Ludmilla Pavlachenko, come over. to us, we will give you plenty of chocolate and make you a German officer, unquote. And they also put a reward on her head and threatened to tear her into pieces, one for each soldier she killed. She got married to another sniper who was on the front lines with her, but he was killed just days later from a mortar shell. In June of 1942, Ludmilla Pavlacenko herself was injured from a piece of shrapnel from a mortar round. With this injury, the decision was made to pull her from active combat duties. It was her fourth combat injury. By the time she was, was removed from the front line, she had a total of 309 confirmed enemy kills, 36 of which

were opposing snipers. She wasn't just the most lethal female sniper in history, but one of the most lethal in world history, period, up to that point. And she did it all over a span of only 10 months. Once she was taken out of combat, her story took a very different turn. She was a highly decorated war hero, and most importantly, she had become famous. The Soviets didn't want to risk losing her at this point because she was much more valuable for propaganda purposes. In September 1942, she was sent to the United States and Canada on a publicity tour to try to win support for opening up a second front of the war. She became the first citizen of the Soviet Union ever to visit the White House. She met President Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt

took a liking to her. Eleanor Roosevelt invited Ludmilla to join her on a tour of the United States to tell her story of fighting on the front lines to the Americans. In one of their first stops in Washington, D.C., Ludmilla met the American press for the first time. She didn't speak English, so everything had to be communicated through an interpreter. But she was dumbfounded by the questions. One of the questions asked if Soviet women were allowed to wear makeup on the front line. She replied, quote, there's no rule against it, but who has time to think of her shiny nose when a battle is going on?

End quote. She got the same treatment from the press everywhere she went in the country. She was dubbed the Girl Sniper by the New York Times. articles were written about the length of her skirt being too long and that she never wore makeup. Another article reported that her uniform was ill-fitting and made her look fat. She gave as good as she got with the press. In an interview with Time magazine, she noted, quote, I wear my uniform with honor.

It has the order of linen on it. It's been covered with blood in battle. It's plain to see that with American women, what is important is whether they wear silk underwear under their uniforms. What the uniform stands for, they have yet to learn. end quote. Over time, she found her voice and was able to captivate crowds with her stories. At a rally in Chicago, she said to the crowd, quote, Gentlemen, I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist invaders by now. Don't you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for far too long?

End quote. The crowd stood in stunned silence for several seconds before erupting in applause. While she was popular with the crowds, the media still didn't get it. Malvina Lindsay, who wrote the gentler sex column for the Washington Post, wrote about the way Ludmilla addressed, quote, Isn't it a part of military philosophy that an efficient warrior takes pride in his appearance? Isn't Joan of Arc always pictured in beautiful and shining armor? End quote. Even if the media didn't like her, the crowds did. In every American city, she was showered with gifts and attracted huge crowds.

Woody Guthrie even wrote a song about her, titled Miss Pavlachenko. When she returned to the Soviet Union, she spent the rest of the war training snipers, and never saw front-line duty again. She was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union and twice awarded the Order of Lenin, the highest awards given in the country. She later finished her schooling and became a historian with the Soviet Navy

and later the Department of Veterans Affairs. She suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and alcoholism the rest of her life. She was able to meet Eleanor Roosevelt one last time in 1957 when Mrs. Roosevelt visited Moscow. She passed away from a stroke in 1974

at the age of 58. While women never made up more than 2% of the Red Army, there were over 2,000 female snipers who fought for the Soviets. Only 500 of them ever survived the war. Ludmila Pavlacenko has been honored on postage stamps, in movies and in books, and there's even been video game characters which were inspired by her. While there may be no way to know for certain, there's a very good chance that Ludmilla Pavlacenko was the most lethal female soldier in all of history. The associate producers of Everything Everywhere Daily are Peter Bennett and Thor Thompson.

If you'd like to support the show, please join the list of patrons over at patreon.com. And also remember, if you leave a review or send me a question, you two can have it read on the show. Miss Pavlachinko, well on to fame, Russia's your country,

fighting's your game. The world will always love you for all time to come. Three hundred nats is spelled by your gun. Fell by your gun