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In June of 1941, 24-year old Pavlichenko was studying history at the Kiev University when Nazi Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union.

Pavlichenko was among the first round of volunteers at the recruiting office, where she requested to join the infantry and subsequently she was assigned to the Red Army's 25th Infantry Division.

There she became one of 2,000 female snipers in the Red Army, of whom only about 500 ultimately survived the war. As a sniper, she made her first two kills near Belyayevka, using a Mosin-Nagant bolt action rifle with a P.E. 4-power scope.

Pvt. Pavlichenko fought for about two and a half months near Odessa, where she recorded 187 kills. When the Germans gained control of Odessa, her unit was pulled to be sent to Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. In May 1942, Lieutenant Pavlichenko was cited by the Southern Army Council for killing 257 German soldiers. Her total confirmed kills during World War II was 309, including 36 enemy snipers.

In June 1942, Pavlichenko was wounded by mortar fire. Because of her growing status, she was pulled from combat less than a month after recovering from her wound.
1943 postage stamp
1943 postage stamp

She was sent to Canada and the United States for a publicity visit and became the first Soviet citizen to be received by a U.S. President when Franklin Roosevelt welcomed her at the White House. Later, Pavlichenko was invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to tour America relating her experiences. She appeared before the International Student Assembly being held in Washington, D.C., and later attended CIO meetings and made appearances and speeches in New York City. The United States gave her a Colt automatic pistol, and in Canada, she was presented with a sighted Winchester rifle, the latter of which is now on display at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow. While visiting in Canada along with Vladimir Pehelintsev (fellow sniper) and Nikolai Krasavchenko (Moscow fuel commissioner), they were greeted by thousands at Toronto's Union Station.

Having attained the rank of Major, Pavlichenko never returned to combat but became an instructor and trained Soviet snipers until the war's end. In 1943, she was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, and was commemorated on a Soviet postage stamp.


Nina Alexeyevna Lobkovskaya (Russian: Нина Алексеевна Лобковская) (born c. 1925) served as a sniper for the Red Army of the Soviet Union during World War II attaining the rank of Lieutenant.

She was born the eldest of five children in Siberia. Her family moved to Tajikistan following the ill health of her father Alexei who had enlisted in the Red Army in 1942 before being killed in the battle for Voronezh in October of the same year.

Lobkovskaya was one of 300 women sent to Veshnyaki to train as snipers.

From February 1945 until the end of the war, Lobkovskaya commanded a company of female snipers who eventually participated in the Battle of Berlin.