Copyright
© 2020 John
F. Oyler
February
13, 2020
Roza Shanina, Soviet Sniper
The
Bridgeville Area Historical Society opened the new year with one of its rare
Sunday afternoon programs. The speaker was a young lady named Dana del Bianco
who specialized in studying Stalinism, at Carnegie Mellon University. Her
subject was a Soviet hero of World War II, Roza Shanina, a decorated sniper.
Miss
Shanina was born in Yedna, Russia, in
1924, and educated at a pedagogical college in Archangelsk, Siberia. She was
working in a kindergarten when war broke out and she joined the Red Army.
Women
were treated as equals in the Soviet Union; it is not a surprise that they were
the only country to employ women in combat during the Second World War. At
least one hundred thousand Russian women saw combat in that conflict.
A
special assignment for women was as a sniper. The Red Army was convinced they
were especially well equipped for this unique role. As many as 2,500 Russian
women served as snipers; five hundred of them survived the war.
Miss
Shanina entered the service in June, 1943, following the death of her brother in
action. She was immediately identified as a potential sniper and did so well in
training that she became an instructor at that academy. Her persistent requests
for combat eventually resulted in an assignment as leader of a female sniper
platoon in the 184th Rifle division in April 1944, just in time to
join a counter-offensive near Vitebsk.
She
immediately distinguished herself by killing seventeen German soldiers “while
subjected to artillery and machine gun fire”. She was rewarded by receiving the
Order of Glory, Third Class, and having her portrait displayed on the front
page of the Soviet newspaper “Unichtozhim”.
Her
platoon then joined Operation Bagration which eventually drove the enemy out of
Russia, across Lithuania, and into East Prussia, with major victories at
Vilnius, Kaunus, and Konigsberg. Sergeant Shanina’s “kill” total reached fifty
before she suffered a wound in her shoulder that took her out of action in
December.
After
a fast recovery she was back at the front by January 8, 1945, just in time to
learn that she had been awarded a second medal. This time it was the Order of
Glory Second Class. With it came additional national publicity.
The
speaker showed a number of photographs of the sniper, all apparently posed.
They show a remarkably photogenic young blonde lady, sporting a dimpled smile.
In each of them she is displaying her medals on her chest and is holding her
rifle.
Her
weapon was a classic Mosin-Nagant rifle equipped with a 3.5 power telescope. It
is a repeating gun with a five cartridge, bolt operated magazine. The
cartridges were thirty caliber (7.62 mm). Originally developed in 1891, it is
in many ways comparable to the American 30-06.
Seeing
the medals reminded me of a cartoon character in some long-forgotten comic
strip of the 1940s – a Russian military officer whose chest was completely
draped with medals, exactly like the ones in Miss Shanina’s photographs.
Ms.
del Bianco made her presentation in a replica uniform very similar to the one
in the photographs – neat cap, brown jacket complete with medals, dark skirt,
and high boots. We assume this was a dress uniform, not her regular work
clothes.
Roza
Shanina was certainly a prime subjet for the Soviet propaganda machine. The
contrast between her angelic appearance and her achievements as a killer is
ironic. If someone as innocent looking as this child can be converted into a
cold-blooded killer, surely the USSR must prevail.
Her
fame was short lived. On January 27, 1945, she was severely injured by an
artillery shell. She died a day later. Based on the notoriety of her publicity
it is conceivable that she had been targeted by the enemy.
During the war, correspondent
Pyotr Molcnanov was involved in publicizing Miss Shanina’s exploits. When she
died he acquired her diary, a set of notebooks she kept during the last four
months of her life. They were published in 1965, generating a renewed interest
in her career, as well as a number of posthumous honors.
During
her presentation the speaker frequently inserted statements verbatim from Miss
Shanina’s Diary. Taken out of context they present several different aspects of
her personality.
For
example, “If you know how passionately I want to be at the front and kill
Nazis” suggests that she is evil, a cold-blooded assassin. Similarly, “Solid
hit on Fritz at a distance of 20 meters and clearly killed 15, maybe more. Good
hunting for us two – 35 Krauts” sounds like the everyday journal of someone
doing his/her job.
A
thorough reading of the Diary, however, paints a dramatically different
picture. Roza Shanina comes across like a prototypical young single woman,
beset with social problems and stuck in a job full of highs and lows. One
suspects that her sudden fame as a Soviet hero was difficult for her to handle.
One
wonders what she was really like. The contrast between behaving like a comic
strip character in a 1945 issue of “War Comics” and acting like a character in
a TV sitcom (“Friends?”) is dramatic.
It
is also easy to reflect on the many aspects of war. At one extreme is the
impersonal attitude of a bomber pilot dropping bombs on an unknown target or a
gunner on a battleship loading shells into a sixteen-inch cannon aimed at a
shore miles away. The other extreme is the sniper, spotting her target in her
telescopic sight and watching him crumble when her slug hits him.
After
Jumonville Glen, Washington reported there was “something charming in the
sound” of bullets in a battle. Robert E. Lee commented that “It is well that
war is so terrible, or we should grow fond of it”. More profound than either
was William Tecumseh Sherman, “War is Hell”.
The
Society’s next program meeting is scheduled for Sunday, February 23, 2020, at
1:30, in the Charties Room of the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department. Dr.
John Aupperle’s subject will be “The Matriarch: A Life of Barbara Bush”.
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