Soviet Sniper Rosa Shanina

 

 Smart, Beautiful, and Deadly:
19-Year-Old Soviet Sniper Roza Shanina with 59
Confirmed Kills, 1945

Roza Shanina, the Soviet sniper who captured global
attention at only 19 years old, achieved 59 confirmed
kills during World War ll — including 12 during the
Battle of Vilnius alone.

After her brother was killed in 1941, she volunteered
for the army and chose to become a front-line sniper.
She quickly gained a reputation for exceptional
accuracy and for performing doublets — hitting two
targets with two rapid shots.

By 1944, Canadian newspapers were calling her “the
unseen terror of East Prussia", and she became the
first Soviet female sniper to receive the Order of
Glory.

Despite Soviet orders to withdraw female snipers
from direct combat, Shanina refused to step back.
She repeatedly asked to return to the front line, even
writing to General Krylov and to Stalin himself. Her
request was denied, yet she went anyway — receiving
only administrative punishment, and continuing to
fight.

In her diary, she wrote about feeling “an unknown
force" pulling her toward battle, and about losing her
comrades one after another. She fully understood she
might be killed, but kept advancing.

On 27th January 1945, she was mortally wounded while
shielding a wounded artillery officer, and died the next
day — leaving behind deeply emotional diary entries
from a brave, strong young woman worn down by war
and loss.