Roza Shanina
Wikimedia CommonsRoza Shanina
Roza Shanina displayed her badassery from a young age. Determined to receive an education past elementary school, for grades five-seven, she trekked to the nearest village. It was an eight-mile walk. At the age of 14, Shanina ran away (120 miles away) to attend college in Arkhangelsk.
Working at a kindergarten by day, she graduated in 1942 when Arkhangelsk was hit by German bombs. Shanina held voluntary vigils on rooftops to protect the kindergarten.
Word then came that her 19-year-old brother had perished in the Siege of Leningrad. Shanina, now age 17, requested admittance into the military but was denied. Instead, she enrolled in the Central Female Sniper Academy in 1943 for preparation.
She excelled there, enough to earn a job offer of instructor, but declined it in favor of moving to the front lines. By this time, she’d lost two more brothers to war. After her deployment, however, Shanina found that women were routinely kept from the front line. She snuck out there anyway, disobeying orders.
Credited with 59 confirmed kills during her relatively short career, Shanina was dubbed the “unseen terror of East Prussia.” Her precision was legendary, and she made doublets (hitting two targets in quick succession) with ease.
She was the first female Soviet sniper to be awarded the Order of Glory. But on January 27, 1945, while shielding a wounded officer, she sustained a grave injury. Two soldiers found her disemboweled, chest opened by a shell fragment.
One of her last diary entries stated her wish to return home after the war to start a family, but also says, “If it turns necessary to die for the common happiness, then I’m braced to.”
