The Second World War was the period in the history of mankind when people performed the most incredible feats and showed all their hidden talents. Naturally, the most appreciated were those fighters whose abilities could be used in military operations. Especially the Soviet command allocated snipers who, using their skill, could destroy up to a thousand enemy soldiers during their service with well-aimed shots. Lists of the best snipers of the Second World War, with names and an indication of the number of enemies hit, often flash across the Internet in different versions. In our article, we have gathered those who brought victory closer with all their might, despite the difficulties of front-line life and serious injuries. So who are they - the best snipers of World War II? And where did they come from, later transformed into an elite caste of fighters?

Shooting training in the USSR

Historians from many countries of the world unanimously declare that during the Second World War fighters from the USSR proved to be the best snipers. Moreover, they surpassed the soldiers of the enemy and allies not only in terms of training, but also in the number of shooters. Germany was able to come a little closer to a similar level only at the end of the war - in 1944. Interestingly, to train their fighters, German officers used training manuals written for Soviet snipers. Where did such a number of well-aimed shooters come from in the pre-war period in our country?

Since 1932, work on training in shooting was carried out with Soviet citizens. During this period of time, the country's leadership established the honorary title "Voroshilovsky shooter", confirmed by a special badge. They were divided into two degrees, the second was considered the most honorable. To obtain it, it was required to go through a series of difficult tests that were beyond the power of ordinary shooters. Every boy, and what to hide, and girls too, dreamed of showing off the "Voroshilov shooter" badge. For this, they spent a lot of time in shooting clubs, diligently practicing.

In the thirty-fourth year of the last century, a demonstration competition was held between our and American shooters. The unexpected result for the United States was their loss. The Soviet shooters snatched victory with a huge advantage, which indicated their excellent preparation.

Shooting training work was carried out for seven years and was suspended with the outbreak of the first hostilities. However, by this time, the "Voroshilovsky shooter" badge was proudly worn by more than nine million civilians of both sexes.

Sniper caste

Now it's not a secret for anyone that snipers belong to a special caste of fighters who are carefully guarded and transferred from one area of ​​the military conflict to another in order to demoralize the enemy. In addition to the psychological impact on the enemy, these shooters are distinguished by real destructive power and have very impressive "mortal" lists. For example, the best snipers of World War II from the USSR had long lists of five or seven hundred killed. In this case, only confirmed deaths are taken into account, but in reality their number could exceed one thousand soldiers per shooter.

What makes snipers so special? First of all, it should be said that these people are really special by nature. After all, they have the ability to be motionless for a long time, tracking down the enemy, the utmost concentration of attention, calmness, patience, the ability to quickly make decisions and unique accuracy. As it turned out, the required set of qualities and skills was fully possessed by young hunters who spent their entire childhood in the taiga hunting down the beast. It was they who became the first snipers who fought with conventional rifles, showing simply stunning results.

Later, on the basis of these shooters, a whole unit was formed, which turned into the elite of the Soviet army. It is known that during the war years, training sessions of snipers were held more than once, designed to increase their effectiveness as a result of the exchange of experience.

At the moment, some foreign historians are trying to challenge the results of Soviet fighters listed in the list of the best snipers of World War II. But this is quite difficult to do, because each target is documented. In addition, most experts are sure that the number of real successful shots exceeds the number indicated in the award lists by two, or even three times. After all, not every target hit in the heat of battle could be confirmed. Do not forget the fact that many documents take into account the result of a particular sniper only at the time of presentation for the award. In the future, his exploits may not have been fully tracked.

Modern historians claim that ten of the best snipers of the Second World War were able to destroy more than four thousand enemy soldiers. Among the excellent shooters were women, we will talk about them in one of the following sections of our article. After all, these brave ladies by their results skillfully bypassed their colleagues from Germany. So who are they - these people, named the best snipers of the Second World War?

Of course, the list of Soviet snipers does not include ten people. According to the archives, their number can be estimated at more than one hundred skillful shooters. However, we decided to bring to your attention information about the ten best Soviet snipers of World War II, the results of which still seem fantastic:

• Mikhail Surkov.
• Vasily Kvachantiradze.
• Ivan Sidorenko.
• Nikolay Ilyin.
• Ivan Kulbertinov.
• Vladimir Pchelintsev.
• Peter Goncharov.
• Mikhail Budenkov.
• Vasily Zaitsev.
• Fedor Okhlopkov.

A separate section of the article is devoted to each of these unique people.

Mikhail Surkov

This shooter was drafted into the army from Krasnoyarsk Territory, where he spent all his life in the taiga, hunting the beast with his father. With the onset of war, he took up a rifle and went to the front to do what he knew best - to hunt down and kill. Thanks to his life skills, Mikhail Surkov managed to destroy more than seven hundred fascists. Among them were ordinary soldiers and representatives of the officer corps, which undoubtedly made it possible to include the shooter in the list of the best snipers of the Second World War.

However, the talented fighter was not presented for the award, since most of his victories were never documented. Historians associate this fact with the fact that Surkov loved to rush into the epicenter of the battle. Therefore, in the future, it turned out to be quite problematic to determine from whose well-aimed shot one or another enemy soldier fell. Mikhail's fellow soldiers confidently said that he had destroyed more than one thousand fascists. Other people were especially struck by Surkov's ability to remain invisible for long hours, tracking down his enemy.

Vasily Kvachantiradze

This young man went through the entire war from beginning to end. Vasily fought with the rank of foreman and returned home with a long track record of awards. On account of Kvachantiradze - more than half a thousand German fighters. For his accuracy, which ranked him among the best snipers of the Second World War, by the end of the war he was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.

Ivan Sidorenko

This fighter is considered one of the most unique Soviet shooters. Indeed, before the war, Sidorenko planned to become a professional artist and had great prospects in this area. But the war decided in its own way and the young man was sent to a military school, after graduating from which he went to the front as an officer.

Immediately, the newly minted commander was entrusted with a mortar company, where he showed his sniper talents. During the war years, Sidorenko killed five hundred German soldiers, but he himself was seriously wounded three times. After each time, he returned to the front, but in the end the consequences of the wounds were very severe for the body. This did not allow Sidorenko to graduate from the military academy, however, before leaving for the reserve, he received a Hero Soviet Union.

Nikolay Ilyin

Many historians believe that it is Ilyin who is the best Russian sniper of the Second World War. He is considered not only a unique shooter, but also a talented organizer of the sniper movement. He gathered young soldiers, trained them, forming from them a real skeleton of riflemen on the Stalingrad front.

It was Nikolai who had the honor to fight with the rifle of the Hero of the USSR Andrukhaev. With it, he destroyed about four hundred enemies, and in total, in three years of hostilities, he managed to kill almost five hundred fascists. In the fall of 1943, he fell in battle, receiving the posthumous title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Ivan Kulbertinov

Naturally, most of the snipers in civilian life were hunters. But Ivan Kulbertinov belonged to hereditary reindeer herders, which was a rarity among soldiers. Yakut by nationality, he was considered a professional in shooting and, according to his results, bypassed the best snipers of the Wehrmacht of the Second World War.

Ivan got to the front two years after the outbreak of hostilities and almost immediately opened his death toll. He went through the entire war to the end and almost five hundred Nazi soldiers were included in his list. It is interesting that the unique shooter never received the title of Hero of the USSR, which was awarded to almost all snipers. Historians claim that he was twice presented for the award, but for unknown reasons the title never found its hero. After the end of the war, he was presented with a personalized rifle.

Vladimir Pchelintsev

This man had a difficult and interesting fate. We can say that he was one of the few people who could be called professional snipers. Even before the forty-first year, he studied shooting and even achieved the high title of master of sports. Pchelintsev possessed unique accuracy, which allowed him to destroy four hundred and fifty-six fascists.

Surprisingly, a year after the outbreak of the war, he was delegated to the United States along with Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who was later named the best female sniper of the Second World War. They spoke at the International Student Congress about how boldly Soviet youth are fighting for the freedom of their country and called on other states not to surrender under the onslaught of the fascist infection. Interestingly, the shooters were honored to spend the night within the walls of the White House.

Peter Goncharov

The fighters did not always immediately understand their calling. For example, Peter did not even suspect that fate had a special fate in store for him. At the war, Goncharov ended up in the militia, then he was accepted into the army as a baker. After a while, he became a wagon train, which he planned to serve further. However, as a result of a surprise attack by the Nazis, he managed to prove himself as a professional sniper. In the midst of the unfolding battle, Peter raised someone else's rifle and began sighting to destroy the enemy. He even managed to knock out a German tank with one shot. This decided the fate of Goncharov.

A year after the start of the war, he received his own sniper rifle, with which he fought for another two years. During this time, he killed four hundred and forty-one enemy soldiers. For this, Goncharov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and twenty days after this solemn event, the sniper fell in battle, not letting go of his rifle.

Mikhail Budenkov

This sniper went through the entire war from the very beginning and met victory in East Prussia. In the spring of 1945, Budenkov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for four hundred and thirty-seven targets hit.

However, in the early years of his service, Mikhail did not even think of becoming a sniper. Before the war, he worked as a tractor driver and ship mechanic, and at the front he was in charge of a mortar crew. His accurate shooting attracted the attention of his superiors, and soon he was transferred to the sniper.

Vasily Zaitsev

This sniper is considered a true legend of the war. A hunter in peacetime, he knew everything about shooting firsthand, so from the first days of his service he became a sniper. Historians claim that in just one Stalingrad battle, more than two hundred enemies fell from his well-aimed shots. Among them were eleven German snipers.

There is a story about how the Nazis, tired of the elusiveness of Zaitsev, sent to destroy his best German sniper of the Second World War - the head of the secret school of riflemen Erwin Koenig. Vasily's fellow soldiers said that a real duel was fought between the snipers. It lasted almost three days and ended with the victory of the Soviet shooter.

Fedor Okhlopkov

This man was spoken of with admiration during the war years. He was a real Yakut hunter and tracker, for whom there were no impossible tasks. It is believed that he managed to kill over one thousand enemies, but most of his victories were difficult to document. Interestingly, over the years of service in the ranks of the army, he used not only a rifle, but also a machine gun as a weapon. In this way, he destroyed soldiers, aircraft and tanks of the enemy.

Best Finnish Sniper of World War II

"White Death" - this nickname was given to the shooter from Finland, who killed more than seven hundred soldiers of the Red Army. Simo Häyhä in the thirty-ninth year of the last century worked on a farm and did not even think that he would become the most effective sniper of his country.

After a military conflict arose between Finland and the USSR in November 1939, units of the Red Army invaded the territory of a foreign state. However, the fighters did not expect that locals will put up such tough resistance to Soviet soldiers.

Simo Häyhä, who fought in the thick of things, stood out in particular. Every day he killed sixty to seventy enemy soldiers. This forced the Soviet command to launch a hunt for this well-aimed shooter. However, he continued to remain elusive and sow death, hiding in the most inappropriate, as it seemed to the officers, places.

Later, historians wrote that Simo was helped by his small stature. The man barely reached one and a half meters, so he was quite successful in hiding almost in full view of the enemy. He also never used an optical rifle, because it often glared in the sun and gave out an arrow. In addition, the Finn was well versed in the peculiarities of the local terrain, which gave him the opportunity to occupy the best places to observe the enemy.

At the end of the Hundred Day War, Simo was wounded in the face. The bullet went right through and completely disintegrated the facial bone. In the hospital, his jaw was restored, after which he safely lived to almost a hundred years.

Of course, war does not have a woman's face. However, Soviet girls made their invaluable contribution to the victory over fascism, fighting on different sectors of the front. It is known that among them there were about one thousand snipers. Together they were able to destroy twelve thousand German soldiers and officers. Surprisingly, the results of many of them are much higher than those who were called the best German snipers of the Second World War.

The most productive shooter among women is Lyudmila Pavlichenko. This amazing beauty volunteered immediately after the declaration of war with Germany. For two years of hostilities, she was able to eliminate three hundred and nine fascists, including thirty-six enemy snipers. For this feat she was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR, for the last two years of the war she did not take part in battles.

Olga Vasilyeva was often called the best female sniper of the Second World War. On the account of this fragile girl, one hundred and forty-eight fascists, but in the forty-third year, no one believed that she could become a real sniper, whom the enemy would be afraid of. The girl left a notch on the butt of her rifle after each well-aimed shot. By the end of the war, it was completely covered in markings.

Genya Peretyatko is deservedly ranked among the best female snipers of the Second World War. For a long time, practically nothing was known about this girl, but she destroyed one hundred and forty-eight enemies with well-aimed and accurate shots of her rifle.

Even before the start of the war, Genya was seriously engaged in shooting, she was her real passion. In parallel, the girl was fond of music. It is amazing that she skillfully combined both activities until the war intervened in her life. Peretyatko immediately volunteered for the front, and thanks to her abilities, she was quickly transferred to snipers. After the end of the war, the girl moved to the United States, where she lived for the rest of her life.

German snipers

The results of the German shooters have always been much more modest than those of Soviet soldiers... But even among them were unique snipers who glorified their country. Many legends circulated during the war about Mathias Hetzenauer. He fought for only one year as a sniper, having managed to destroy three hundred forty-five Red Army soldiers. For Germany, this was simply a phenomenal result that no one was able to surpass.

Joseph Allerberger was also considered one of the best German snipers of World War II. He was able to confirm the elimination of two hundred and fifty-seven targets. His colleagues considered the young man a natural-born sniper who possessed not only accuracy and endurance, but also a certain psychology that allowed him to intuitively choose the right battle tactics.

Everything mysterious gives rise to legends. The art of a combat sniper borders on mysticism. The effect of his work is terrible, and the ability to appear in the most unexpected place and disappear without a trace after the shot seems supernatural.

"Sniper" - english word, formed by the abbreviation of the phrase "snipe shooter", that is, "snipe shooter". Snipe is a small bird that flies along an unpredictable trajectory, so not every hunter could get into it. The word itself appeared in the eighteenth century - for example, in the letters of British soldiers from India. Then, at the beginning of the First World War, the "sniper" passes from newspaper publications into the official vocabulary of the military and gets its current, narrow and deadly, meaning.

In those days, none of the countries provided for the massive use of snipers in hostilities, and even more so did not organize special training - sniper shooting remained the lot of gifted individuals. Snipers became a real mass phenomenon only during the Second World War. Almost all the countries participating in it had soldiers in the army trained in the use of a rifle with a telescopic sight and in camouflage. Even against the general background of huge losses in that war, the "combat score" of snipers looks impressive. After all, the number of people killed by one sniper can be in the hundreds.

It is interesting: on average, 18,000 - 25,000 bullets were spent on one killed enemy soldier in World War II. For snipers, this figure is 1.3-1.8 bullets.

"White death"

The tactics developed by the Finns for the work of snipers in the winter time turned out to be so successful that later it was used by both the Russians and the Germans. And even now there is practically nothing to add to it.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

Perhaps it was the Finns who became the pioneers in successful application sniper tactics during the 1939 winter campaign. Perfectly prepared and trained Finnish cuckoo snipers taught Soviet army a cruel lesson about the fact that there are no forbidden techniques in war. Good knowledge of the area, adaptability to natural conditions, pre-prepared shelters and escape routes allowed the "cuckoos" to successfully carry out combat missions and quietly retreat to new positions, disappearing without a trace in the snow-covered forests.

We have already told you about the most famous of all "cuckoos" - Simo Hayhe nicknamed "White Death". But speaking of snipers, it's hard not to mention him again. The number of "confirmed murders" in this case is estimated at five hundred or more. They were made in just one hundred days. According to some estimates, none of the snipers of the Second World War achieved greater efficiency.

If you try to imagine a fighter destroying one hundred enemy soldiers a day, the imagination obediently draws a powerful figure with an aviation six-barreled machine gun from Hollywood films. So, reality barely reaches the shoulder of an imaginary figure with its crown: the height of the "White Death" was only a little more than one and a half meters. And instead of the heavy and uncomfortable "minigun", he preferred to use the Finnish shortened version of the Mosin-Nagant rifle, and giving up telescopic sight... A solar flare on the lens of optics could have betrayed it, as it betrayed the position of Soviet snipers, which Hayha himself did not hesitate to use.

However, it is worth noting that the Soviet troops themselves presented a very tempting target. As one of the Finnish soldiers said: "I like fighting the Russians, they go on the attack at full height." The tactics of a massive offensive, the "human wave", turned into that war huge losses for the Soviet Union.

On March 6, 1940, luck still turned away from the Finnish sniper - he received a bullet in the head. According to the recollections of colleagues, his face was disfigured beyond recognition, he fell into a coma for several days. Simo Hayha regained consciousness on March 11, just the day the war ended, and, despite being seriously wounded, lived for another 63 years, having died in 2002.

Another name that sometimes appears in articles about Winter War snipers is Sulo Kolkka... His "confirmed murders" are said to have reached four hundred in one hundred and five days. However, his name does not appear in the archives of the Finnish army and is not mentioned in the press of that time, just as his photographs do not exist.

Sulo Kolkka was the name of a military journalist who wrote about the successes of the "cuckoos". If we compare what is attributed to Kolkka the sniper with what Kolkka the journalist wrote about Simo Heich, then much will coincide. It is likely that foreign journalists reprinting Finnish articles mixed the name of the sniper and the journalist, creating another myth about that war.

Mosin 91/30

A rifle developed in 1891 by the captain of the Russian army S.I. Mosin, can be considered a symbol of an entire era. With minor modifications, it existed in service with the army of the Russian Empire, and after the Soviet army until the very end of World War II.

The rifle was adapted for firing three-line cartridges. Three lines in the old system of measures were 7.62 millimeters. This is where the name "three-line" came from.

Initially, there were three variants of this weapon: infantry (main) with a long barrel and bayonet, dragoon (cavalry) with a shortened barrel and Cossack, which differed from the cavalry by the absence of a bayonet.

In the twenties of the last century, the first Russian sniper rifle was designed on the basis of the Mosin rifle. In the same years, of the three versions of the "three-line" in service, it was decided to leave only one - the dragoon.

And finally, in 1930, the last pre-war modernization of the rifle took place - the bayonet mount was changed to reduce its loosening, which greatly impaired the accuracy of the previous models. In addition, the rifle scope is now graduated in meters, instead of arshins. It is the modification of the thirtieth year, or the "91/30 Mosin rifle" that becomes the main weapon of the Soviet army.

The sniper modification of the "three-line" was distinguished by the fact that it had mounts for an optical sight. Now, with the proliferation of self-loading magazine rifles, this phrase may seem commonplace, but in fact it was a very significant difference. The Mosin rifle was loaded using a clip of five rounds, which was inserted vertically from above. If a sight was attached to the rifle, loading with a clip became impossible - which means that one cartridge had to be loaded at a time.

Despite all its shortcomings, the Mosin rifle was exactly the weapon that was needed in the early years of the war. The design, simple and cheap to manufacture, made it possible to quickly establish the mass production of "three-rulers". In addition, according to ballistic data, this rifle did not lag behind, or even surpassed its German "enemy", the Mauser 98 sniper rifle.

The Tokarev self-loading rifle (SVT) was adopted by the Soviet army in 1938. In the fortieth year, the army received its lightweight modification, designated "SVT-40".

The magazine, which held ten rounds, and automatic reloading increased the rate of fire of the weapon and its overall firepower. The use of cartridges from the Mosin rifle made it possible to equip SVT with clips from the "three-line", for which special guides were provided in the receiver cover.

In the sniper version, the bracket for mounting the optical sight is located so as not to interfere with loading the rifle with clips. In addition, a hole has been made in the bracket, allowing the use of an open rifle scope when the optical one is installed.

The attitude to "Svetka" - as the soldiers called the SVT - was rather ambiguous. The rifle was criticized for the shorter range and accuracy of fire compared to the Mosin rifle. For excessive sensitivity to pollution and frost. For low reliability, finally.

But in the hands of a good fighter - for example, Lyudmila Pavlichenko - the SVT sniper version showed itself with better side... The problem was not so much in the rifle itself as in how it was used and how well it was maintained.

"The main hare" and others

The art of sniper is the daring skill of the patient, the art of waiting for the right moment and instantly using it. The sniper tracks down the target, like a hunter on the trade, and organizes the course of events so as to make that target appear and substitute for the shot.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

Almost sixty-four years have passed since the end of World War II. It seems to be a small period of time for the history of mankind, but the events of those days have already managed to acquire a huge number of legends, propaganda slogans, contradictory and frankly false information. One side tried to use the successes at the front to inspire its soldiers, while the other tried to hide them so as not to undermine the notorious "fighting spirit". Therefore, now it is already difficult to assert something for sure, if the matter concerns not general issues, but the destinies and actions of specific people.

Especially here the Soviet and German sources "differ", information from which is sometimes mutually exclusive.

One of striking examples- history Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev, sniper 1047 infantry regiment 284th rifle division 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front.

Zaitsev was born in 1915 in the village of Yelininsk, Agapovsky district Chelyabinsk region... Since 1937 he served on Pacific Fleet... The war found him in the position of chief of the financial department in the Preobrazhenie Bay. In September 1942, after five reports on the transfer to the front, Vasily finally got into active army... In the period from November 10 to December 17, 1942, in the battles for Stalingrad, Zaitsev destroyed 225 enemy soldiers and officers. He did not receive special training - like most Soviet snipers of that time. The necessary skills were acquired already on the spot, in battle.

It is interesting: in addition to sniper activities, Zaitsev was also engaged in training snipers. On both sides of the front, his pupils were simply called "rabbits."

Particularly famous was the case when the European champion in bullet shooting, the head of the Berlin school of snipers, Major Koenig, flew to Stalingrad to counter Soviet snipers. His main task was to destroy the "main hare". As Zaitsev writes in his memoirs, they could only judge the appearance of the German "super sniper" by the results of his activities - killed soldiers, most often snipers - "hares". It was not possible to determine its location - the German fired several shots and disappeared without a trace. In the end, Zaitsev was able to roughly determine the section of the front on which the enemy sniper was at the moment.

The "games" continued for two days, when Zaitsev's assistant, Nikolai Kulikov, tried to attract the attention of the German so that he would reveal his location with a shot. On the third day, the enemy sniper could not stand it - he knocked down the helmet, which Kulikov carefully lifted from the trench with a stick, and, apparently considering that he had defeated the Soviet rifleman, looked out from behind the cover. Then he was found by the bullet of the "main hare".

It is interesting: this sniper duel became the basis of the plot for the film "Enemy at the Gates".

This version of events is set out in the memoirs of V.G. Zaitsev "There was no land for us beyond the Volga." Other Russian-language sources also reprint it from there. But even in them you can find many inconsistencies: the major is called either Koenig or Koenigs, then they write that "under the guise of Major Koenig there was a conspiratorial SS Standartenfuehrer Torvald" ... And this despite the fact that on the corpse of a "super sniper" his documents! In addition, Koenig-Torvald is sometimes called the "head of the Wehrmacht sniper school", then the sniper school - but already the SS. Either the European champion, now the Olympic bullet shooting champion ...

The last statement can be verified simply: the champion of neither Europe, let alone the Olympic Games, by the name of Erwin Koenig or Heinz Torvald, did not exist in reality. As there was no Berlin school of snipers, the head of which he could be.

Vasily Zaitsev. Stalingrad, October 1942.

What is left as a result? And as a result - a beautiful heroic story about a three-day confrontation between two snipers-masters of their craft. Could this have happened? Not only could, but certainly took place repeatedly and in more than one Stalingrad. But Major Koenig most likely did not exist. Unless, of course, the Germans took the trouble to remove the mention of him from all possible documents - lists of personnel, lists of recipients and the like.

And the sniper Vasily Zaitsev really existed, but his main merit was not in the number of killed German soldiers and not in the victory over the mythical “super sniper”. The main thing that Zaitsev did was teach thirty "rabbits", many of whom later became sniper instructors. As a result, a whole sniper school was created! And until the second half of the war, specialized training of snipers in the USSR was not conducted. Only in 1942, three-month courses began to work, the duration of which was increased to six months, but this was not enough. Snipers were mainly those who grew up in families where the main trade was hunting. It was the hunters, accustomed to reading tracks and tracking down the beast, who could determine the location of the target by the slightest changes in the situation - crushed grass, broken branches of trees.

One of these hereditary hunters was the foreman of the 4th rifle division of the 12th army Mikhail Ilyich Surkov... According to Soviet sources, more than seven hundred people were killed on his account. If this figure is correct, then he is undoubtedly the most productive of the Soviet snipers.

There is some doubt that Sergeant Major Surkov was not awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, unlike other snipers with much more modest results. It is possible that the number "700" appeared in wartime newspapers from the words of Surkov himself, and it can take into account both enemies killed from a machine gun and unconfirmed hits.

Another story about a hunter who became one of the best snipers of the Soviet army in World War II is associated with the name of a sergeant of the 234th Infantry Regiment of the 179th Infantry Division of the 43rd Army of the 1st Baltic Front Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkova.

The future Hero of the Soviet Union was born in the village of Krest-Khaldzhai in Yakutia. Received only primary education, worked on a collective farm. At the age of thirty-three, he went to the front with his cousin Vasily. For two weeks, while the conscripts were getting from Yakutsk to Moscow, the Okhlopkov brothers studied the machine gun device and then, already at the front, made up a machine-gun crew.

In one of the battles, Vasily Okhlopkov was killed. Fyodor vowed to avenge his brother, which they did not fail to report in the political report to the command. So the name of Okhlopkov was first mentioned in military documents.

Soon after that, Fedor Okhlopkov was sent to sniper courses, and in October he returned to the front in a new capacity, changing the machine gun to a rifle with a telescopic sight.

It is interesting: they say that Yakut snipers always tried to shoot the enemy in the head, explaining that "the game must be beaten between the eyes."

During his service, until 1944, he brought the number of killed enemies to 429. Twelve times he was wounded and twice shell-shocked. For light wounds, he preferred to be treated folk methods- herbs and tree resin - just not to leave the front. However, a through wound to the chest, which he received in the battles for Vitebsk, could not be cured without hospitalization, and after it Fedor Matveyevich left the combat units.

The female face of war

In the war, time was compressed. The brutal necessity sharpened susceptibility and forced the human body to work on the brink of the impossible. What took years in peacetime, the war took months and weeks.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

On September 1, 1939, the law "On universal military service" was adopted. From that moment on, military service in the USSR became an honorable duty of every citizen, regardless of gender. Article 13 stated that the People's Commissariats of Defense and the Navy were given the right to register and recruit women into the army and navy, as well as to involve them in training camps. This is how it began in the Soviet Union that neither the opponents in that war nor the allies managed to understand. A German or an Englishman simply did not fit into his head that a woman could go to the front line, that she could be a pilot, an anti-aircraft gunner or a sniper.

Nevertheless, there were more than a thousand women among Soviet snipers. During the war, he was credited with more than 12,000 killed Germans.

The most productive of them was Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko, a sniper of the 25th Chapaevskaya rifle division. She was in the army from the very first days of the war, the beginning of which found her in Odessa. In the battles in Moldova, in the defense of Odessa and Sevastopol, she brought the personal tally of those killed to 309. Of these three hundred German soldiers and officers, thirty-six are enemy snipers.

In June 1942, Lyudmila was wounded, and she was recalled from the front line. After treatment, she wanted to return, but for her there was already a completely different task: Sergeant Pavlichenko went to the USA. The Soviet delegation was received personally by President Roosevelt.

Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in history.

It is interesting: at a press conference, American journalists bombarded Lyudmila Mikhailovna with questions: does she use powder, blush and nail polish? Does your hair curl? Why is she wearing a uniform that makes her look so full? Pavlichenko's answer was short: "Do you know that we have a war there?"

After her return, Lyudmila did not get to the front: she was left as an instructor at the Vystrel sniper school.

When the war ended, a student of the Faculty of History of the Kiev State University named after T.G. Shevchenko Lyudmila Pavlichenko was finally able to finish her thesis, which was not given to her by the war in 1941.

Natalia Kovshova and Maria Polivanova before the war, they worked together in one of the research institutes in Moscow. Together we went to sniper courses, together we went to the front. Completely different in character - the modest Maria and Natalia, active in public affairs - the friends made a good sniper pair. By August 1942, their "total count" was approaching three hundred dead enemies.

On August 14, the battalion, to which a sniper platoon was attached, which included Natalya and Maria, repelled attacks by German infantry near the village of Sutoki in the Novgorod region. In total, they withstood fifteen attacks. Already starting to lack ammunition, the platoon commander was killed, and Natalya took his place, stopping the soldiers who were already ready to retreat. They held out to the end, until the last bullet, until only two survived - Kovshova and Polivanova. The girls drew closer, firing back, until they converged back to back.

When they had only two grenades left, the girls decided. The explosion took the lives of not only two Soviet snipers, but also those Germans who had already hoped to take them prisoner.

Natalia Kovshova.

Maria Polivanova.

Lydia Semyonovna Gudovantseva, a graduate of the central Podolsk school of sniper training, reached almost to Berlin. Only a wound in a duel with a German sniper could stop her, which she later describes as follows:

“In the morning a German appeared and headed for the trees. But why without a sniper rifle, without a weapon at all? Thoughts worked: it means, I think, he equipped himself with a place in the tree, leaves for the night to his own, and in the morning he returns and snaps our fighters. I decided not to rush, to observe. He did climb a tree, but strangely, not a single shot was fired. And in the evening, already at dusk, he shed tears and went home. Some kind of mystery.

For three days I conducted intensive surveillance. Everything was repeated as scheduled. On the fourth day, tired, and the nerves, I feel they are not the same, I decide: "Today I will take it off." As soon as Fritz appeared, I took aim at him and prepared to fire a shot. There was a dull click, and I felt a taste of blood in my mouth, and blood began to drip onto the rifle butt. She pressed her chin to the collar of her greatcoat in order to somehow delay the bleeding. And in my head a disturbing thought: "Is it really the end ?!" But she drove her away, mobilized her will: "I must take revenge on him, and then I can die." Frozen at the sight. Sometimes it seemed to me that I was about to lose consciousness. Where the strength came from - I don't know.

It was afternoon. A little more, and twilight. Anxiety began to plague me. Suddenly to the left of the tree, where that fascist climbed for three days in a row, a German jumped from one of the trees, and in his hands he was holding a sniper rifle. Here, it turns out, where he was! He clung to a tree and looks in my direction. Then I pulled the trigger. I see a Nazi settling on a tree trunk.

So my mortal duel ended in victory. She lay until dark, at times in some kind of oblivion. A scout crawled up to me and helped me get to my own. "

Another story, told by Lydia Semyonova in 1998, became the basis for one of the questions at the Brain Ring Games in Kiev. The question sounded like this: “While observing the enemy's defense, snipers Lidiya Gudovantseva and Alexander Kuzmin noticed a structure, the upper part of which was made up of Christmas trees connected from above. The next morning, noticing a German heading there, Kuzmina ran up to this building and burst into it with the words: "Hyundai hoh!" Who was there german officer did not resist and was safely delivered to the location of our troops. Attention, the question: what kind of structure was it? "

The answer is simple: it was a toilet. And the German officer could not use his pistol for a completely understandable reason ...

Scharfschutzen

The sniper is a long knife in the heart of the enemy; too long and too cruel to be ignored.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

If you think about it, it is quite understandable why information about German snipers of World War II is an order of magnitude, or even two less than about Soviet ones. After all, "Nazi sniper" is a label that few survivors of the war would like to wear after being defeated in it.

German sniper. Pay attention to the location of the scope.

Another German shooter, but with a normally placed optics.

And nevertheless, even considering this moment, the situation remains rather strange. Historians on both sides claim that the sniper movement in their armies arose after they faced massive attacks by enemy snipers.

The German version looks like this: in their plans, the command of the German army relied primarily on tank strikes and rapid advance into the depths of the enemy's territory. In this situation, the sniper simply did not have a place in the army - he was already considered "a relic of the trench battles of the First World War." And only in the winter of 1941, after it became clear that the "blitzkrieg war" had failed and the German units were increasingly forced to switch from attacks to defense, and snipers began to appear at the positions of the Soviet troops, the command "remembered" the need for training and their "super-sharp shooters."

There is only one question to this version: where did the German snipers come from that Vasily Zaitsev, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and other Soviet soldiers had to face at the beginning of the war?

In fact, it can be argued with reasonable certainty that German snipers were on the eastern front from the very beginning. Yes, their use was not as massive as that of the Finns in the Winter War or later in the Soviet troops. Nevertheless, even a sniper armed with a Mauser rifle with a 1.5-fold sight is capable of performing combat missions to suppress (especially psychological) enemy troops. But in history, for some reason, not always clear, neither their names have survived, much less the number of "confirmed murders" committed by them.

About whom we know for certain is about three snipers awarded with knight's crosses, and all three received this award already in 1945.

The first was Frederick Payne, awarded in February of that year, after he brought his battle score to two hundred. The war ended for him with three wounds and captivity.

The second received the knight's cross Matthias Hetzenauer Possibly the most prolific German sniper of WWII, aside from the semi-mythical Major König. The number of "confirmed kills" on his account - 345. Awarded in April 1945 for "repeatedly performing their tasks under artillery fire or during enemy attacks" in May, Matthias was taken prisoner and was imprisoned in the USSR for five years.

Joseph "Sepp" Ollerberg. Autographed photo for memory.

The best sniper in Germany, Mathias Hetzenauer.

And finally, the third of the snipers who received the knight's cross - Joseph Ollerberg... There are no documents on his nomination for the award, but at the time it was not so unusual. Of all the former Wehrmacht snipers, Ollerberg is perhaps the most talkative. According to him, at first he was a machine gunner in the war, but after being wounded, in a hospital, out of boredom, he decided to experiment with a captured Soviet rifle. The experiments were so successful that Joseph, after he shot twenty-seven people, was sent to the school of snipers. So the machine gunner became a sniper.

German snipers achieved much greater success on the second European front in Normandy. The British and American military had little to oppose the well-trained Wehrmacht riflemen. The German scharfschutzen knew the area well, camouflaged their positions and staged a real "sniper terror".

Hedges became a favorite hideout for the Germans. Snipers dug in near them, mined approaches, set up traps in the bushes. The best method of dealing with them remained mortar and artillery strikes against the proposed position.

It is interesting: to the question: "How do you distinguish officers if they wear a regular field uniform without insignia and are armed with rifles, like ordinary soldiers?" - the captured German sniper replied: "We shoot people with mustaches." Indeed, in british army traditionally, only officers and senior sergeants wore mustaches.

The usual tactic of a sniper is to fire a shot, rarely two, and change position in order to get away from enemy return fire. But in Normandy, the British and Americans faced a completely different phenomenon - German snipers fired continuously without even trying to move. Naturally, in the end they were destroyed, but before that, such a "suicide" managed to inflict serious damage.

Mauser Kar. 98k

In 1898, the German army adopted a new rifle developed by the Mauser brothers' arms company. This weapon had to undergo more than one modification and survive in the active army until the very end of World War II.

The most massive of its variants was the Karabiner 98 kurz, a short carbine released in 1935, which was then adopted by the Wehrmacht. It was he who became the most common weapon of the German army, contrary to the opinion that it was provided with automatic weapons.

The K98 store contained five cartridges of 7.92 Mauser caliber and was loaded using a clip inserted vertically from above. Starting with the K98a modification, the bolt handle was bent down to provide greater convenience when reloading the carbine.

The produced K98 sniper modifications were originally equipped with a one and a half times optical sight - it was assumed that a small increase should be enough to perform combat missions. In addition, the design was designed so that the sniper would observe both the target and the surrounding environment at the same time. For this, the sight was located at a sufficiently large distance from the shooter's eye. The experience of using such rifles showed that this decision was erroneous, therefore, later versions were already equipped with four or sixfold optics.

Self-loading rifles appeared in the German army only in 1941. These were the developments of the firms Mauser and Carl Walther Waffenfabrik, designated "G41". Both of them were not very successful - unreliable, too heavy, too sensitive to pollution.

Walter's rifle was later modified. The G41 gas outlet system was changed, borrowing the solution from the SVT-40. The rifle acquired a detachable magazine with a capacity of ten rounds. The changes were considered so significant that the name of the weapon was changed - now it was called the "43rd rifle", Gewehr 43. In 1944 it was renamed again - it became the "K43" carbine. The design, however, was not affected by this renaming.

Production of this rifle - including modifications with a telescopic sight - continued until the end of the war. Often the G43s had the simplest finishes, and their outer surfaces were roughly finished.

After the end of the war, a small number of carbines were used by the Czechoslovak army as sniper weapons.

Snipers of the second front

A sniper is not just a sniper rifle shooter. This is a super sharp long-range shooter.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

It so happened that the Americans did not have such a Winter War as the USSR, and they did not have to face such fierce resistance from skilled snipers as the Soviet troops in Finland. And, although their command generally understood the tasks that the "super sharp shooter" must perform, but too little attention was paid to special training. The main and sufficient quality of a sniper was considered the ability to shoot well. The experience of clashing with Japanese snipers on the Pacific Front changed little: the Japanese predominantly chose positions in the crowns of trees, from where they could be easily knocked out.

Only after the landing in Normandy, the American troops were able to fully feel what a real "sniper terror" is. They had to master the tactics of counteracting the accurate fire of the Germans in a short time. To study, like the Soviet army once did in Finland, not to move even in a seemingly safe places in full growth, pay more attention to observing possible hideouts of enemy snipers, organize your own sniper squads.

English sniper in position.

And here, as on the eastern front, hunters and trackers moved to the front ranks - the Americans had Indians for them. Sniper Sergeant John Fulcher, a Sioux Indian, wrote that “half of the guys in the sniper squad were Indian, including two Sioux from the Black Hills. I have heard others call us savages. And when they said - "they went for scalps again", they said it with admiration, and we perceived these words just like that. "

It is interesting: Fulcher and his Indians did scalp slain Germans from time to time, leaving them in a prominent place as a warning to others. Some time later, they learned that the Germans decided to kill captured snipers or Indians on the spot.

Nevertheless, in the American troops, snipers were mainly used to cover their positions, when the sniper squads did not move away from the main forces, ensuring fire superiority. The main task was to suppress the machine-gun and mortar crews of the enemy, as well as his snipers. The destruction of soldiers and even officers of the enemy army was a secondary task.

The situation was better with the training of snipers in the British army. British snipers were taught how to choose and mask a firing position correctly. For camouflage, both improvised material - branches, bricks - and specially made mobile sniper posts were used, for the creation of which engineers and artists were specially involved.

But when the English riflemen were finally able to test their skills, the war was already drawing to a close. Therefore, the British are not on the lists of the best snipers of World War II ...

Game incarnation

In almost any game that uses firearms, there is a place for sniper rifles in one form or another. The specialty of the sniper is quite popular in online action films. But the vast majority of game snipers are fictional characters in fictional circumstances.

Only Vasily Zaitsev's duel with the German "super sniper" was relatively "lucky" here. After the release of the film "Enemy at the Gates", this episode Battle of Stalingrad received worldwide fame, sufficient for some of its details to "seep" and in computer games.

First mission in the game Commandos 3: Destination Berlin is that the player in Stalingrad needs to destroy the German sniper.

In Game Call of duty 2 the mission, which takes place in Stalingrad, includes a moment from the film - luring an enemy sniper with an empty helmet.

V Call of Duty: World at War the player will have to help Sergeant Reznov to destroy the German General Amsel in Stalingrad. In the course of completing the assignment, you need to endure a duel with a German sniper hiding in the house.

Highly skilled snipers were worth their weight in gold during World War II. Fighting on the Eastern Front, the Soviets positioned their snipers as experienced marksmen who were noticeably dominant in many ways. The Soviet Union was the only one that trained snipers for ten years, preparing for war. Their superiority is confirmed by their "mortal lists" Experienced snipers have killed many people and, undoubtedly, were of great value. For example, Vasily Zaitsev killed 225 enemy soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Maxim Alexandrovich Passar(1923-1943) - Soviet, during the Great Patriotic War, destroyed 237 enemy soldiers and officers.
In February 1942 he volunteered for the front. In May 1942, he passed sniper training in units of the North-Western Front. Destroyed 21 Wehrmacht soldiers. He joined the CPSU (b).
From July 1942 he served in the 117th Infantry Regiment of the 23rd Infantry Division, which fought in the 21st Army of the Stalingrad Front and the 65th Army of the Don Front.
He was one of the most effective snipers of the Battle of Stalingrad, during which he destroyed more than two hundred enemy soldiers and officers. For the elimination of M.A.Passar, the German command appointed a reward of 100 thousand Reichsmarks.

He made a great contribution to the development of the sniper movement in the Red Army, took an active part in practical training shooters. The snipers of the 117th Infantry Regiment trained by him killed 775 Germans. His speeches on the tactics of sniper warfare were repeatedly published in a large-circulation newspaper of the 23rd Infantry Division.
December 8, 1942 M.A.Passar received a shell shock, but remained in the ranks.

On January 22, 1943, in a battle near the village of Peschanka, Gorodishchensky district, Stalingrad region, he ensured the success of the offensive of the regiment's units, stopped by enemy flank machine-gun fire from camouflaged fortified positions. Covertly approaching a distance of about 100 meters, Senior Sergeant Passar destroyed the crews of two heavy machine guns, which decided the outcome of the attack, during which the sniper was killed.
MA Passar was buried in a mass grave on the square of the Fallen Fighters of the worker's settlement Gorodishche, Volgograd Region.

Mikhail Ilyich Surkov(1921-1953) - participant of the Great Patriotic War, sniper of the 1st battalion of the 39th rifle regiment of the 4th rifle division of the 12th army, foreman.
Before the war, he lived in the village of Bolshaya Salyr, now the Achinsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. He was a taiga hunter.
In the Red Army since 1941 - drafted by Achinsky (in award sheet- Atchevsky) RVC. Candidate to the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks since 1942. At the end of the war, he was transferred to the rear to train snipers.
After the war, Mikhail Ilyich returned to his native village. He died in 1953.

The best Soviet sniper of the Great Patriotic War, the number of destroyed enemies according to Soviet sources is 702. A number of Western historians question this figure, believing that it was fabricated by Soviet propaganda in order to neutralize the result of the Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, which he achieved during the Soviet-Finnish wars of 1939-1940. However, it was only after 1990 that Simo Häyhä became known in the USSR.

Natalia Venediktovna Kovshova(November 26, 1920 - August 14, 1942) - Hero of the Soviet Union, sniper during the Great Patriotic War.

Natalya Venediktovna Kovshova was born on November 26, 1920 in Ufa. Subsequently, the family moved to Moscow. In 1940 she graduated from the Moscow school number 281 in Ulansky lane (now number 1284) and went to work in the trust of the organization of the aviation industry "Orgaviaprom", created in late autumn of the same year. She worked as an inspector of the personnel department. In 1941 she was preparing to enter the Moscow Aviation Institute. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, she volunteered for the Red Army. Graduated from sniper courses. At the front since October 1941.
In the battle near Moscow, she fought in the ranks of the 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division. (The division was formed on the critical days for Moscow in the autumn of 1941 from volunteer battalions, which included students, professors, elderly workers, schoolchildren). Since January 1942, a sniper in the 528th Infantry Regiment (130th Infantry Division, 1st Shock Army, North-Western Front). On the personal account of the sniper Kovshova, 167 exterminated Nazi soldiers and officers. (According to the testimony of her brother-soldier Georgy Balovnev, no less than 200; the award list specifically mentions that among the targets Kovshova hit were "cuckoos" - enemy snipers and the enemy's machine-gun crew). During the service, she taught the fighters the skill of marksmanship.

On August 14, 1942, near the village of Sutoki, Parfinsky District, Novgorod Region, together with her friend Maria Polivanova, she fought the Nazis. In an unequal battle, both were wounded, but did not stop the battle. Having shot the entire supply of cartridges, they blew themselves up with grenades along with the enemy soldiers who surrounded them.
She was buried in the village of Korovitchino, Starorussky district, Novgorod region. There is a cenotaph in the grave of her father at the Novodevichy cemetery.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously on February 14, 1943 (together with M.S.Polivanova) for dedication and heroism shown in battle.

Zhambyl Yesheevich Tulaev(May 2 (15), 1905, Tagarkhai ulus, now Tunkinsky district, Buryatia - January 17, 1961) - participant of the Great Patriotic War, sniper of the 580th rifle regiment of the 188th rifle division of the 27th army of the North-Western Front, foreman

Born on May 2 (15), 1905 in the Tagarkhai ulus, now the village of Tunkinsky district of Buryatia, into a peasant family. Buryat. Graduated from 4th grade. He lived in the city of Irkutsk. He worked as the head of the packaging base. In the Red Army since 1942. In the army since March 1942. Member of the CPSU (b) since 1942. Sniper of the 580th Infantry Regiment (188th Infantry Division, 27th Army, North-Western Front), Petty Officer Zhambyl Tulaev, from May to November 1942, exterminated two hundred and sixty-two Nazis. Prepared three dozen snipers for the front.
By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 14, 1943, for exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Sergeant Major Tulayev Zhambyl Yesheevich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and a medal " Golden Star"(No. 847).
Since 1946, Lieutenant Zh. E. Tulaev is in reserve. He returned to his native Buryatia. He worked as chairman of a collective farm, secretary of the local village council. Died on January 17, 1961.

Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko September 12, 1919, Chantsovo village, Smolensk province - February 19, 1994, Kizlyar was a Soviet sniper who killed about 500 enemy soldiers and officers during the Great Patriotic War. The hero of the USSR

Member of the Great Patriotic War since November 1941. He fought in the 4th Shock Army of the Kalinin Front. He was a mortarman. In the winter counteroffensive of 1942, the mortar company of Lieutenant Sidorenko fought from the Ostashkovsky bridgehead to the city of Velizh Smolensk region... Here Ivan Sidorenko became a sniper. In battles with the Nazi invaders, he was seriously wounded three times, but each time he returned to duty.
Assistant Chief of Staff of the 1122nd Infantry Regiment (334th Infantry Division, 4th Shock Army, 1st Baltic Front) Captain Ivan Sidorenko distinguished himself as the organizer of the sniper movement. By 1944, he destroyed about 500 Nazis from a sniper rifle.

Ivan Sidorenko trained more than 250 snipers for the front, most of whom were awarded orders and medals.
By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 4, 1944, for the exemplary fulfillment of combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Captain Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal "(No. 3688).
I. M. Sidorenko finished his military career in Estonia. At the end of 1944, the command sent him to the preparatory courses of the military academy. But he did not have to study: old wounds opened, and Ivan Sidorenko had to go to the hospital for a long time.
Since 1946, Major I.M.Sidorenko has been in reserve. He lived in the city of Korkino, Chelyabinsk region. He worked as a mining foreman in a mine. Then he worked in various cities of the Soviet Union. Since 1974 he lived in the city of Kizlyar (Dagestan), where he died on February 19, 1994.

Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkov(March 2, 1908, Krest-Khaldzhai village, Bayagantaysky ulus, Yakutsk region, Russian empire- May 28, 1968, p. Krest-Khaldzhai, Tomponsky district, YaASSR), RSFSR, USSR - sniper of the 234th rifle regiment, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Born on March 2, 1908 in the village of Krest-Khaldzhai (now located in the Tomponsky ulus of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)) in the family of a poor peasant. Yakut. Primary education. He worked as a miner-haulman of gold-bearing rocks at the Orochon mine in the Aldan region, and before the war as a hunter-fisherman, a machine operator in his native village.
In the Red Army since September 1941. From December 12 of the same year at the front. He was a machine gunner, squad commander of a company of machine gunners of the 1243rd rifle regiment of the 375th division of the 30th army, and from October 1942 - a sniper of the 234th rifle regiment of the 179th division. By June 23, 1944, Sergeant Okhlopkov destroyed 429 Nazi soldiers and officers from a sniper rifle. He was wounded 12 times.
On June 24, 1945, he took part in the Victory Parade over Nazi Germany on Red Square in Moscow.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin were awarded only in 1965.

Demobilized after the war. He returned to his homeland. From 1945 to 1949 - head of the military department of the Tattinsky RK CPSU. On February 10, 1946, he was elected a deputy of the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. From 1949 to 1951 - director of the Tattinsky procurement office for the extraction and procurement of furs. From 1951 to 1954 - manager of the Tattinsky district office of the Yakutsk meat trust. In 1954-1960 he was a collective farmer, a worker of a state farm. Since 1960 - retired. Died May 28, 1968. He was buried in the cemetery of his native village.

It should be noted that in the list of 200 best snipers of the Second World War - 192 Soviet snipers, the first twenty snipers of the Red Army destroyed about 8400 enemy soldiers and officers, and on the account of the first hundred - about 25500. Thanks to our grandfathers for the Victory!

Well-trained snipers have always been valued in all armies of the world, but especially the importance of snipers increased during the Second World War. The results of this war showed that the most trained and effective in their overwhelming majority were the snipers of the Red Army. Soviet sniper fighters in many respects were noticeably superior to snipers of the German Wehrmacht and not only them.

And this was not surprising, it turns out that the Soviet Union was almost the only country in the world where training in small arms business was put on stream, it practically covered the wide strata of the population of the whole country, trained citizens in shooting business even in peacetime, as part of pre-conscription training , the older generation probably still remembers the sign "Voroshilovsky shooter".

Soviet snipers practice ambush actions

The high quality of this training was soon tested by the war, during which Soviet snipers showed all their skill, this skill is confirmed by the so-called sniper "death lists", from which it is clear that only one top ten Soviet snipers killed (according to confirmed data) 4,200 soldiers and officers, and the first twenty - 7400, the Germans did not have such tens and twenty.

Despite the hardest defeats of the first months of the war, the training of the best riflemen in units and formations of the front line continued at an accelerated pace and did not stop for a minute. Training of snipers, in addition, was carried out in reserve training units and on short-term courses directly in the combat formations of the troops.

However, the military command understood the whole need for centralized training of "super-sharp shooters". As early as September 18, 1941, a decree was issued on the universal compulsory military training of citizens of the USSR, which made it possible to organize military training population on the job. The training program was designed for 110 hours. In addition to other military specialties (machine gunner, mortarman, signalman), training was also carried out along the line of sniping.

Sniper cadets at a practical lesson

Still, it was extremely difficult to train snipers in such a short time, so soon it was decided to open special "schools of excellent sniper training" (SHOSSP) in the military districts. The training went on for 3-4 months already with a break from production. The Moscow Military District alone had three such schools. The instructors involved were sniping instructors from OSOAVIAKHIM, who, as in peacetime, continued to train sniper personnel in their schools.

In addition, it was decided to organize a centralized training of highly qualified snipers with instructor skills. For this, on March 20, 1942, a school of sniper instructors was created in Veshnyaki near Moscow.

Red Army snipers take position

Our opponents, the Germans, also had special sniper schools, but the Germans did not have such a wide coverage and such a serious approach to training snipers, and they ended up far behind the Red Army in the sniper business.

During World War II, much attention was paid to the sniper business in the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition, but the results of the Anglo-American snipers were much more modest than those of the Russians, Germans and Finns. The most trained snipers among the allies were mainly from the British, American snipers, mainly, distinguished themselves in battles with the Japanese in the Pacific.

Sniper work was hard and dangerous, for hours, or even days, the soldiers had to lie in the snow or swamp, in constant tension and attention, the equipment of the Soviet sniper during the Great Patriotic War was rather stingy. In addition to an optical sight for monitoring targets, they had a variety of field binoculars (usually 6- and 8-fold) and trench periscopes TR and TR-8.

For self-defense in close combat, the sniper often took several hand grenades, a pistol and a knife with him on a mission. If a sniper group was ambushed, then the armament was also supplemented with a PPSh or PPS submachine gun. Throughout the war and after it, up to the adoption of the SVD (in 1963), the standard sniper rifle in our army remained the rifle arr. 1891/30 with a PU sight.

Unknown Soviet female snipers at the dugout. On overcoats sergeant shoulder straps, in the hands of a Mosin rifle with a PU telescopic sight (Sight Shortened)

In total, from 1941 to 1945, 53,195 sniper rifles of the 1891/30 model were produced in the USSR. and 48.992 SVT sniper rifles. For wartime, this is a rather large figure, but if you look at the real number of personnel snipers trained during the same time and make an allowance for the natural loss of weapons during hostilities, it becomes clear that all front-line "super-sharp shooters" simply could not be provided with special sniper weapon.

By the middle of 1942, Soviet snipers were actively working on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War, they unleashed a real sniper terror against the German troops, our snipers had a huge moral impact on enemy soldiers, and this is understandable why, since our enemy soldiers were shot by our snipers almost every day and almost every minute.

The most famous Soviet sniper is undoubtedly the Hero of Stalingrad Vasily Zaitsev, who killed 242 German soldiers and officers, including the head of the Berlin sniper school, Major Konings. In total, Zaitsev's group destroyed 1,126 enemy servicemen in four months of fighting. Zaitsev's companions in arms were Nikolai Ilyin, who had 496 Germans on his account, Pyotr Goncharov - 380, Viktor Medvedev - 342.

It should be noted that the main merit of Zaitsev is not so much in his personal combat account as in the fact that he became key figure in the deployment of the sniper movement among the ruins of Stalingrad, of course, all the then Soviet agitprop also worked for Zaitsev's group, so we are all familiar with it.

Soviet sniper V.A. Sidorov at a firing position in August 1941. The Red Army soldier is armed with a Mosin sniper rifle with a PE telescopic sight of the 1931 model, it is also worth noting the "Halkingolka" helmet SSH-36 (Steel helmet 1936)

And the main record holder for the destruction of enemy soldiers according to the "death list" was the sniper Mikhail Ilyich Surkov (4th rifle division), 702 killed enemy soldiers and officers were recorded on his account, followed by the number of killed enemy soldiers in the top ten:

- Vladimir Gavrilovich Salbiev (71 Guards SD and 95 Guards SD) - 601 people.
- Vasily Shalvovich Kvachantiradze (259th rifle regiment) - 534 people.
- Akhat Abdulkhakovich Akhmetyanov (260 joint venture) - 502 people.
- Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko (1122 rifle regiment) - 500 people. + 1 tank, 3 tractors
- Nikolay Yakovlevich Ilyin (50th Guards rifle regiment) - 494 people.
- Ivan Nikolaevich Kulbertinov (23 separate ski brigades; 7 Guards air-des.p.) - 487 people.
- Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev (11th brigade) - 456 people (including 14 snipers)
- Nikolay Evdokimovich Kazyuk - 446 members
- Peter Alekseevich Goncharov (44th Guards rifle regiment) - 441 people.

In total, there are 17 Soviet snipers, whose account of the destroyed enemy soldiers exceeds 400 people. Over 300 killed enemy soldiers were recorded at the expense of 25 Soviet snipers, 36 Soviet snipers killed more than 200 enemy soldiers.

The best of the enemy snipers are considered: Finnish sniper Simo Hayha is the fifth in the general list, he has more than 500 killed enemy soldiers, from the Wehrmacht snipers, the most productive is Matthias Hetzenauer, the twenty-seventh in the general list, on his account 345 killed enemy soldiers and Sepp Allerberg on his account is 257 enemy soldiers and officers.

According to some researchers, the real accounts of many Soviet snipers are actually more than the confirmed ones. So, for example, Fyodor Okhlopkov, a sniper of the 259th rifle regiment, according to some sources, destroyed more than 1000 (!) Germans in total, using a machine gun as well, but on the official battle account he had only 429 killed enemy soldiers, probably the situation on the battlefield did not always make it possible to calculate their results more accurately.

In the diaries and letters found on the killed soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht, there are such phrases: “ A Russian sniper is something very terrible, you can't hide from him anywhere! You cannot raise your head in trenches. The slightest indiscretion - and you will immediately get a bullet between the eyes ... Russian snipers lie for hours in one place in ambush and take aim at anyone who appears. Only in the dark can you feel safe».

But it turns out that in the dark, the Germans, too, could not feel safe. So, the sniper of the 1st Guards Artillery Regiment, Ivan Kalashnikov (it turns out that the artillery also had its own snipers) out of 350 killed soldiers, 45 Nazis were destroyed at night - this shooter truly had a cat's sight!

By 1943, there were already more than 1000 women among Soviet snipers, during the war they counted more than 12,000 killed Nazis, the best of the female snipers is considered Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlyuchenko, a sniper of the 54th rifle regiment, during the war she managed to destroy 309 enemy soldiers of them 36 were themselves snipers.

Soviet sniper Sergeant Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev of the 202nd Rifle Division at a firing position. Leningrad front. The combat score of Ts.Dorzhiev (Buryats by nationality) before his death in January 1943 was 270 killed soldiers and officers.

Adopted by the Red Army in 1942, the "Combat Regulations of the Infantry" defined the range of combat missions solved by snipers at the front: " Destruction of snipers, officers, observers, gun and machine-gun crews (especially flanking and dagger crews), crews of stopped tanks, low-flying enemy aircraft and, in general, all important targets that appear for a short time and quickly disappear ... The sniper must also be able to show with a tracer bullet and in other ways infantry, artillery, mortars and anti-tank guns, important targets that are not vulnerable to a bullet: tanks, bunkers (bunkers), guns».

And Soviet snipers clearly carried out all these tasks assigned to them. So the sniper, Marine Rubakho Philip Yakovlevich (393 battalion battalion) destroyed 346 enemy soldiers, 1 tank and put out of action the garrisons of 8 enemy bunkers. Sniper 849 s.p. Ivan Abdulov destroyed 298 German soldiers, 5 of them were snipers themselves, plus the brave fighter also destroyed two enemy tanks with grenades. Sniper 283 Guards rifle regiment Anatoly Kozlenkov, in addition to the 194 people killed by him. enemy soldiers, knocked out 2 tanks with grenades, and destroyed 3 German armored personnel carriers.

And there are many such examples, our snipers even managed to knock out German planes, as it is known that the sniper of the 82nd rifle division Mikhail Lysov in October 1941 shot down a Ju-87 dive bomber from an automatic rifle with a sniper scope. Unfortunately, there is no data on the number of infantrymen killed by him, and the sniper of the 796th rifle division Sergeant Major Antonov Vasily Antonovich in July 1942 near Voronezh shot down a twin-engine Ju-88 bomber with 4 rifle shots! There is also no data on the number of infantrymen killed by him.

Sniper of the 203rd Infantry Division (3rd Ukrainian Front) Senior Sergeant Ivan Petrovich Merkulov at a firing position. In March 1944, Ivan Merkulov was awarded the highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, during the war years the sniper destroyed more than 144 enemy soldiers and officers.

Even Hitler's generals died from the fire of Soviet snipers, so on account of the sniper Semyon Nomokonov among the 367 German soldiers and officers killed by him, one was in the rank of General of the Wehrmacht. On account of the sniper 14 s.p. troops of the NKVD Yevgeny Nikolaev also recorded a German general.

There were even snipers specifically designed to fight enemy snipers., so sniper 81 Guards rifle regiment Vasily Golosov killed 422 enemy soldiers in total, 70 of them were snipers themselves.

A special practice of using snipers existed at that time in the NKVD troops. After training and special training, "super-sharp shooters" went on combat training in the army. Such sniper teams usually numbered from 20 to 40 people, the duration of a business trip was from 10 days to a month. Thus, a significant part of the personnel not only received special training, but also underwent running-in in real conditions of the front line. For example, in the 23rd division of the NKVD troops for the protection railways 7283 snipers were trained during the war years.

Snipers of the unit of senior lieutenant F.D. Lunin are firing salvo at enemy aircraft.

In the memorandum "On the combat activities of snipers of the NKVD troops of the USSR in the protection of important industrial enterprises for the period from October 1, 1942 to December 31, 1943" it says: “... Over the past period, parts of the troops have undergone practice in the combat formations of the active Red Army, and some of them 2-3 times. As a result of combat work, the snipers of the troops destroyed 39,745 enemy soldiers and officers. In addition, an enemy aircraft was shot down and 10 stereo tubes and periscopes were destroyed. Losses of our snipers: 68 people were killed, 112 people were wounded».

In total, during the war years, a total of 428,335 excellent snipers were trained - this is a huge figure, no other army in the world had such a massive training of snipers, which significantly strengthened the combat formations of rifle units.
In addition, in training units 9534 highly skilled snipers were trained centrally.

I would especially like to recall and note Lieutenant General G.F. Morozov, it was he who made a great contribution to the organization of centralized training of sniper personnel, it was he who, heading one of the departments of the General Staff, accumulated and analyzed the combat experience of Soviet snipers throughout the war.

In total, during the war years, 87 snipers became Heroes of the Soviet Union, and 39 - full holders of the Order of Glory.

Female snipers of the 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front. From left to right:
1st row from the viewer - senior sergeant V.N. Stepanova (on her account - 20 enemies), guard senior sergeant Yu.P. Belousov (80 enemies), guard senior sergeant A.E. Vinogradov (83 enemies);
2nd row - guard junior lieutenant E.K. Zhibovskaya (24 enemies), guard senior sergeant K.F. Marinkina (79 enemies), guard senior sergeant O.S. Marienkina (70 enemies);
3rd row - guard junior lieutenant N.P. Belobrova (70 enemies), guard lieutenant N.A. Lobkovskaya (89 enemies), guard junior lieutenant V.I. Artamonov (89 enemies), guard senior sergeant M.G. Zubchenko (83 enemies);
4th row - guard sergeant N.P. Obukhovskaya (64 enemies), guard sergeant A.R. Belyakova (24 enemies).

Sniper Rosa Shanina with her rifle. Rosa Shanina has been in active service since April 2, 1944. On account of 54 confirmed killed soldiers and officers, including 12 snipers. Chevalier of the Orders of Glory 2 and 3 degrees. Killed in action on January 28, 1945, 3 km southeast of the village of Ilmsdorf, Rihau district, East Prussia.

Hero of the Soviet Union, sniper of the 25th Chapaevsk division Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (1916-1974). Destroyed over 300 Nazi soldiers and officers.

Soviet sniper Maxim Alexandrovich Passar. An ethnic Nanaets, a sniper of the 71st Guards Rifle Division, killed over 230 Nazis. He died on January 17, 1943 in a battle near the village of Peschanka, Gorodishchensky district. On February 16, 2010 by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 199 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.