Girl With A Sniper Rifle: An Eastern Front Memoir

· Pen and Sword
3.0
1 review
Ebook
256
Pages
Eligible
Ratings and reviews aren’t verified  Learn More

About this ebook

A memoir of a graduate of Stalin’s Central Women’s Sniper School and her experience during World War II.
 
Yulia Zhukova was a dedicated member of the Soviet communist youth organization, the Komsomol, and her parents worked for Russia’s secret police, the NKVD. Yulia started at the sniper school near Podolsk in western Russian and eventually became a valued soldier during operations against Prussia. In this powerful account, she shares firsthand knowledge of the machinations of the NKVD, as well as the bravery of a female sniper and the grueling toll of war. 
 
Yulia persevered through eight months of training before leaving for the Front just days after qualifying. Joining the third Belorussian Front, her battalion endured rounds of German mortar, as well as loudspeaker announcements beckoning them to join the German side. She spent days in the field undergoing regular, terrifying one-on-one encounters with the enemy. Eventually she felt the euphoria of her first hit—while reflecting on ending a life. 
 
These feelings fade as Yulia recounts the barbarous actions of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. She recalls how the women were once nearly overrun by Germans at their house when other Red Army formations had moved off and failed to tell them. She also details a nine-day standoff they endured encircled by Germans in Landsberg. 
 
Regularly suffering ill-health, she took a shrapnel injury and underwent surgery without anesthetic. Eventually she would see the end of the war. Like her famous counterpart Pavlichenko, Zhukova gained recognition but struggled to come to terms with war service . . .
 
Includes notes by John Walter and an introduction by Martin Pegler

Ratings and reviews

3.0
1 review

About the author

Luliia Konstantinovna Zhukova spent her early years in Uralsk but her parents moved from city to city through their work for the secret police, the NKVD. Despite suffering from ill-health in her youth she eventually enlisted and trained to be a sniper. After the war she finished her studies at Moscow University Pedagogical Institute and worked as a Komsomol secretary in Moscow. She then became a school director of a school and worked for the Communist Party.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.