Z Aitsev Vasily Grigorievich - sniper of the 1047th Infantry Regiment of the 284th Infantry Division of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front, junior lieutenant.
Born on March 23, 1915 in the village of Elininsk, Agapovsky district, Chelyabinsk region, in a peasant family. Russian. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1943. He graduated from seven classes of junior high school. In 1930 he graduated from a construction college in the city of Magnitogorsk, where he received a specialty as a reinforcement engineer.
Since 1937, he served in the Pacific Fleet, where he was assigned as a clerk in the artillery department. The diligent, disciplined sailor was accepted into the Komsomol. After studying at the Military Economic School, he was appointed head of the financial department in the Pacific Fleet, in Preobrazhenye Bay. The war found him in this position.
By the summer of 1942, Petty Officer 1st Article Zaitsev had already submitted five reports with a request to be sent to the front. Finally, the commander granted his request and Zaitsev left for the active army. On a dark September night in 1942, together with other Pacific Islanders, Zaitsev crossed the Volga and began to participate in the battles for the city.
Already in the first battles with the enemy, Zaitsev showed himself to be an outstanding shooter. One day the battalion commander called Zaitsev and pointed out the window. The fascist was running 800 meters away. The sailor took careful aim. A shot rang out and the German fell. A few minutes later, two more invaders appeared in the same place. They suffered the same fate. As a reward, Zaitsev received a sniper rifle along with the medal "For Courage". By that time, Zaitsev had killed 32 Nazis from a simple “three-line rifle”. Soon people in the regiment, division, and army started talking about him.
Zaitsev combined all the qualities inherent in a sniper - visual acuity, sensitive hearing, restraint, composure, endurance, military cunning. He knew how to choose the best positions and disguise them; usually hid from the Nazis in places where they could not even imagine a Soviet sniper. The famous sniper hit the enemy mercilessly. Only in the period from November 10 to December 17, 1942, in the battles for Stalingrad, V.G. Zaitsev destroyed 225 enemy soldiers and officers, including 11 snipers, and his comrades in arms in the 62nd Army - 6,000.
One day Zaitsev made his way to a burnt house and climbed into a dilapidated black stove. From this unusual position, two entrances to the enemy dugouts and the approach to the basement of the house where the Germans were preparing food were clearly visible. A sniper killed 10 fascists that day.
One dark night, Zaitsev made his way to the front along a narrow path. Somewhere not far away a fascist sniper had taken refuge; it must be destroyed. For about 20 minutes Zaitsev examined the area, but could not find the hidden enemy “hunter”. Pressing himself tightly against the wall of the barn, the sailor stuck out his mitten; she was violently torn from her hand.
Having examined the hole, he moved to another place and did the same. And again the shot. Zaitsev clung to the stereo tube. I began to carefully scan the area. A shadow flashed on one of the hills. Here! Now we need to lure the fascist out and take aim. Zaitsev lay in ambush all night. At dawn the German sniper was killed.
The actions of the Soviet snipers alarmed the enemies, and they decided to take urgent measures. When our scouts captured the prisoner, he reported that the European champion in bullet shooting, the head of the Berlin sniper school, Major König, had been delivered by plane to the Stalingrad area from Berlin, who had received the task of killing, first of all, the “main” Soviet sniper.
The fascist sniper who appeared on the front was experienced and cunning. He often changed positions, settling down in a water tower, in a damaged tank, or in a pile of bricks. Daily observations did not give anything definite. It was difficult to say where the fascist was.
But then an incident happened. The enemy broke the optical sight of Ural resident Morozov, and wounded soldier Shaikin. Morozov and Shaikin were considered experienced snipers; they often emerged victorious in complex and difficult battles with the enemy. There was no longer any doubt - they had stumbled upon the fascist “super sniper” that Zaitsev was looking for.
Zaitsev went to the position previously occupied by his students and friends. With him was his faithful front-line friend Nikolai Kulikov. On the leading edge, every bump, every stone is familiar. Where could the enemy be hiding? Zaitsev's attention was drawn to a pile of bricks and a sheet of iron next to it. It was here that the Berlin “guest” could find refuge.
Nikolai Kulikov was constantly waiting for the order to shoot in order to attract the enemy’s attention. And Zaitsev watched. The whole day went by like this.
Before dawn, the warriors again went into ambush. Zaitsev in one trench, Kulikov in another. Between them there is a rope for signals. Time dragged on agonizingly. Planes were buzzing in the sky. Somewhere nearby shells and mines were exploding. But Zaitsev did not pay attention to anything. He did not take his eyes off the iron sheet.
When it dawned and the enemy positions were clearly visible, Zaitsev pulled the rope. At this conditioned signal, his comrade raised the mitten he was wearing on the board. The expected shot did not come from the other side. An hour later, Kulikov raised his mitten again. The long-awaited crack of a rifle shot rang out. The hole confirmed Zaitsev’s assumption: the fascist was under an iron sheet. Now we had to take aim at him.
However, you can’t rush: you can get scared. Zaitsev and Kulikov changed their positions. They watched all night. We also waited out the first half of the next day. And in the afternoon, when the direct rays of the sun fell on the enemy’s position, and our snipers’ rifles were in the shadows, our combat friends began to act. Something sparkled at the edge of the iron sheet. A random piece of glass? No. It was the optical sight of a fascist sniper's rifle.
Kulikov carefully, as an experienced sniper can do, began to lift his helmet. The fascist fired. The helmet fell. The German, apparently, concluded that he had won the fight - he had killed the Soviet sniper, whom he had been hunting for 4 days. Deciding to check the result of his shot, he stuck half his head out of the cover. And then Zaitsev pulled the trigger. He hit it straight. The fascist’s head sank, and the optical sight of his rifle, without moving, glittered in the sun until the evening.
As soon as it got dark, our units went on the attack. Behind a sheet of iron, the soldiers found the body of a fascist officer. This was the head of the Berlin sniper school, Major Koenig.
Vasily Zaitsev did not have the opportunity to celebrate the victorious completion of the grandiose Battle of Stalingrad with his military friends. In January 1943, following the order of the division commander to disrupt a German attack on the right-flank regiment by Zaitsev’s sniper group, which at that time consisted of only 13 people, he was seriously wounded and blinded by a mine explosion. Only on February 10, 1943, after several operations performed in Moscow by Professor Filatov, his vision returned.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 22, 1943, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown to the junior lieutenant Zaitsev Vasily Grigorievich awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
Throughout the war V.G. Zaitsev served in the army, in whose ranks he began his combat career, headed a sniper school, commanded a mortar platoon, and then was a company commander. He crushed the enemy in the Donbass, participated in the battle for the Dnieper, fought near Odessa and on the Dniester. May 1945 Captain V.G. I met Zaitsev in Kyiv - again in the hospital.
During the war years V.G. Zaitsev wrote two textbooks for snipers, and also invented the still used technique of sniper hunting with “sixes” - when three pairs of snipers (a shooter and an observer) cover the same battle zone with fire.
He visited Berlin after the end of the war. There I met with friends who had gone through the battle route from the Volga to the Spree. In a solemn ceremony, Zaitsev was presented with his sniper rifle with the inscription: “To the Hero of the Soviet Union, Vasily Zaitsev, who buried more than 300 fascists in Stalingrad.”
Nowadays this rifle is kept in the Volgograd Museum of City Defense. Next to it there is a sign: “During the period of street fighting in the city, sniper of the 284th Infantry Division V.G. Zaitsev used this rifle to destroy more than 300 Nazis, taught 28 Soviet soldiers the art of sniper. When Zaitsev was wounded, this rifle was passed on to the best snipers of the unit.” .
After the end of the Great Patriotic War, he was demobilized and settled in Kyiv. At first he was the commandant of the Pechersk region. He studied in absentia at the All-Union Institute of Textile and Light Industry and became an engineer. He worked as director of a machine-building plant, director of the "Ukraine" clothing factory, and headed the light industry technical school.
Died on December 15, 1991. He was buried in Kyiv at the Lukyanovskoye military cemetery, although his last wish was to be buried in the Stalingrad land that he defended.
On January 31, 2006, the ashes of Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev were transported to the hero city of Volgograd, and solemnly reburied on Mamayev Kurgan.
Awarded the Order of Lenin (02/22/1943), 2 Orders of the Red Banner (12/04/1942; 10/10/1944), the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree (03/11/1985), medals, including “For Courage” (10/25/1942) .
By the decision of the Volgograd City Council of People's Deputies of May 7, 1980, for special services shown in the defense of the city and the defeat of Nazi troops in the Battle of Stalingrad, he was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the Hero City of Volgograd.”
The name of the Hero is given to a motor ship that cruised along the Dnieper. In the city of Yaroslavl, at the memorial to military financiers, a bust of the Hero was installed.
About the sniper V.G. Zaitsev has shot two films. “Angels of Death”, 1992, directed by Yu.N. Ozerov, starring Fyodor Bondarchuk, and Enemy at the Gates, 2001, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, with Jude Law in the role of Zaitsev.
Composition:
There was no land for us beyond the Volga. M., 1981.
/ November 29, 2017 / /
Vasily Zaitsev
Vasily Zaitsev was born in the village of Eleninsky, village of Velikopetrovskaya, Verkhneuralsky district, Orenburg province, now the village. Eleninka, Kartalinsky district, Chelyabinsk region. Participant of the Great Patriotic War, sniper, Hero of the Soviet Union (February 22, 1943).
"Angels of death"
The Germans learned about the sniper Zaitsev from Soviet newspapers. In the battles for Stalingrad he destroyed 242 Nazis. Zaitsev’s words “There is no land for us beyond the Volga!” became the oath of the defenders of Stalingrad.
Snipers for tank, motorized and cavalry divisions of the SS troops, as well as the Wehrmacht, were trained at an elite school in the Berlin suburb of Zossen. According to the American historian Samuel W. Mitchum, the school was visited more than once by the leader of the “black order”, SS Reisführer Heinrich Himmler, who valued the art of shooting, apparently primarily because of his misanthropic tendencies. He pompously awarded SS members who fulfilled particularly difficult standards in bullet shooting at the annual celebrations in the “order castle” of Wewelsburg, where the entire SS elite gathered, with a specially established silver badge (by the way, we also held the “Voroshilov Shooter” badge in high esteem ).
The head of the Zossen school, Heinz Thorwald, was known as the Reichsführer's favorite. The wording of party characteristics for members of the NSDAP from the famous novel by Yulian Semyonov absolutely suited him: “Nordic character, persistent... Merciless to the enemies of the Reich.”
In the SS and Wehrmacht units, the graduates of the school he headed in Zossen were famous, nicknamed “angels of death” for their infernal skill. In Stalingrad, dozens of city defenders died every day from their shots. The Germans maintained fire superiority until the second half of October 1942. And then Paulus sounded the alarm: the enemy began to increase in the number of even more accurate and inventive snipers, and one of them, named Zaitsev, praised by the Russian front-line press, was especially dangerous...
The chief of Himmler's personal staff, SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolf, summoned SS Standartenführer Thorwald:
– It’s time to decorate your Knight’s Cross with oak leaves and swords! My Storch will take you by air to Stalingrad. Hunt down this hare... Remember, the Fuhrer himself is watching you!
Wolf was not exaggerating: when Hitler was informed that on a rearing patch of Russian defense, pressed to the Volga by the iron pincers of the Wehrmacht, the “shepherd from the Urals”, the owner of the hare surname, in a matter of days, sent to his forefathers more than a hundred of his officers and soldiers (and what kind!), he went berserk. And he ordered the best shooter of the Reich, Torvald, to be sent to Paulus, in whom he saw the living embodiment of his dream of a superman, destined to become the master of the world.
Reich Minister of Propaganda Dr. Goebbels, in turn, ordered the publication of an essay with a “true description” of the upcoming Stalingrad feat of the Standartenfuehrer in the SS official “Black Corps”...
Career of a “shepherd from the Urals”
The hereditary hunter Andrei Alekseevich Zaitsev did not know that his grandson, whom he taught to shoot, would someday be cursed with foam at the mouth by the most terrible German conqueror in world history.
However, the Zaitsevs had their own scores to settle with the Germans. Andrei Alekseevich's son Grigory was mobilized for the war with the Kaiser in the fall of 1914 and ended up in the 8th Army under the command of General Brusilov. While Gregory was fighting for the faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland, in March of the fifteenth, his wife gave birth to a boy, who was named Vasya. His wife gave birth to him in a forest bathhouse, without any medical assistance. And a couple of days later, seeing two teeth that had erupted in the little one’s mouth, she clasped her hands: no other way, the bloody beasts would tear the little one apart! There was such a belief in the Southern Urals... It did not come true. But my husband’s troubles were not over.
Grigory returned completely disabled. Hunting - an eternal trade that mainly fed the Eleninites - was now ordered from him... But he had to live somehow, he had a large family. Andrei Alekseevich pinned all his hopes on his grandson Vasyatka, and from childhood he took him on forest wanderings. Made a bow and arrows. Instructed:
“If you want to see what, say, a goat’s horns, eyes, ears are, sit in ambush so that he looks at you like you would at a piece of hay or a currant bush.” Lie down, don’t breathe and don’t move your eyelashes... Grow into the ground, fall to it like a maple leaf and move imperceptibly. Crawl close, otherwise the arrow will miss...
I remember my grandfather's lessons. Under his leadership, the boy learned to “read” the tracks of forest animals, track down the beds of wolves and bears, and set up ambushes in ways that the best Elenin miners could not detect. When he turned twelve years old, grandfather made a royal gift: he handed over a brand new 20-caliber Berdan gun with a full cartridge belt of powder charges, buckshot and shot... And he added:
- Use your fire supplies sparingly, so that not a single shot is wasted!
Shoot offhand, catch scythes with a snare, throw a lasso from a tree onto the horns of wild goats - Zaitsev Jr. knew how to do everything. And he would have emerged as an extremely successful hunter-commercial, but fate decreed otherwise.
In the Chelyabinsk steppe, near Magnitnaya Mountain, an unprecedented construction project took place. It is unknown how the wind brought sixteen-year-old Vasily here. But something else is known for sure: the short, stocky, strong man became a drummer in the construction almost immediately. By the way, he had no education at all. A school was not opened in the village of Yeleninsky under Soviet rule, but my grandmother taught me to read and write. The smart Ural resident completed his seven-year school year in Magnitogorsk. Without interruption from production. Then he enrolled in accounting courses.
After graduating from the military-economic school of the Pacific Fleet, Zaitsev became the chief of finance of the unit.
He met the Great Patriotic War as a chief foreman. I wrote reports on the command “Please send me to the front!” Five such reports one after another! And the bosses are either joking or serious:
- Wait a little, the samurai will strike - the front will be even hotter here!
So the bagpipes with transfer to the active army would drag on, until one day, receiving monetary allowance for the regiment at the bank, he heard women’s gossip behind his back: look, they say, what big foreheads got hired as cashiers... Vasily felt so offended that he decided to get into from the rear to the front line, even with a penalty box. I broke into the unit commander:
- If you don’t let me go, I’ll end up in a military tribunal!
And at this time, from the Pacific sailors in Vladivostok, the 284th Infantry Division was just being formed, which was to be thrown into the heat of Stalingrad. And the commander, no matter how sorry it was to part with the smart chief of finance, reluctantly arranged for Chief Sergeant Zaitsev to be transferred there as an ordinary soldier...
Less than a week later, his battalion loaded into heated vehicles and drove off to the Trans-Volga steppes. On the night of September 22, 1942, Colonel Batyuk’s 284th division in full force crossed to the right bank of the Volga, to fire-breathing Stalingrad. On the move - into battle. The Nazis first tried to burn the daredevils who burst into the territory of the hardware plant. The arriving armada of Junkers smashed 12 huge containers of gasoline. Flames and smoke covered the horizon, it seemed that nothing alive could remain here. But the Pacific Islanders did not give up, showing unprecedented tenacity... For five days and nights there were fierce battles for every workshop, floor, and stairwell.
More than once it came to hand-to-hand combat. In one of the battles, Vasily received a bayonet wound in the shoulder. My left arm is paralyzed. It was time to evacuate to the rear. But communication along the Volga, boiling from the explosions of shells and bombs, was again disrupted, and no more reinforcements were expected...
In these terrible days, when the fate of Stalingrad hung in the balance, Zaitsev said winged words that spread throughout the country:
“There is no land for us beyond the Volga!”
V.G. Zaitsev. Stalingrad, 1945 Photo by G.A. Zelma
As he said, so he did. Private Nikolai Logvinenko was nearby. On the contrary, his arms are intact, but his legs are like cotton wool from the concussion he received. So Vasily suggested to Nikolai:
“You load the rifles, and I’ll handle it with one hand.”
And they survived! A week later, the hand healed, Zaitsev began to defeat the enemy on his own. The rumor that an extraordinary shooter appeared in Captain Kotov's battalion, who rarely missed, quickly spread. The regiment commander, Major Metelev, began to send Zaitsev to other areas of defense, occupied in the destroyed hardware shops. A couple of days later, Vasily was greeted with a joyful exclamation:
- Ah, sniper! Look, the fascist is running. Probably with a report...
He cut down the nimble messenger at five hundred meters with one bullet. From an ordinary three-line camera without any optics. Then the second, third... Major Metelev kept his personal sniper score. After 10 days, there were 42 killed Nazis on it.
And on October 21, the commander of the 62nd Army, Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, presented Zaitsev with a rifle with an optical sight, still rare in the Soviet troops, with the lucky number 28-28.
“The enemy’s machine gunners inflicted great damage on us,” recalled the hero of Stalingrad. There was no life. At first, wanting to somehow ease the situation, I removed the machine gunners, but they were immediately replaced by new ones. He began to break the sights of machine guns, but this required high accuracy. In the end, it became clear that I alone would not make the difference... By the decision of the Komsomol meeting of the regiment, supported by the unit commander, a school was opened in the hardware shops, where I trained the first ten snipers... On the front line, “hares,” as his students were nicknamed in 62 1st Army, worked in pairs, backing each other up and primarily knocking out enemy officers, signalmen, rangefinders...
It’s hard to believe, but the lessons that the grandson of a Ural hunter taught his comrades under bombing and machine-gun fire made it possible in a matter of days to raise shooters who were not inferior to the vaunted professionals from Zossen, at least in accuracy.
Duel
But in war, accuracy alone is not enough. Stealth, camouflage, cunning - that's what makes a good shooter a sniper. And the first duel with the “angel of death” almost became Zaitsev’s last - he received a bullet right in his helmet. A centimeter lower - and he would not live. Well, my partner helped out - he immediately “calmed down” the German with an accurate shot.
After that mortal battle, Vasily refreshed his memory of the lessons that he had once received from his grandfather. He began to come up with his own tricks.
One fascist shooter arranged his position very cleverly.
“He was behind the railway embankment, his head and rifle were covered by a carriage wheel, and he fired through a small hole in the center of the wheel,” Zaitsev recalled. - Almost invulnerable. And he controls us: if you move your helmet on the parapet, there’s a bullet... What should we do?”
The decision came suddenly. The Junkers arrived and the bombing began. At such moments, under fascist bombs, nurse Dora Shakhnevich usually took out a mirror, lipstick, and busily put beauty on her pretty face, but exhausted by the suffering of war, in order to control herself.
Zaitsev saw this and it dawned on him:
- Dora, give me a mirror!
And Vasily commanded his partner Viktor Medvedev:
- Come in from the right and look at the wheel, if you notice a movement, hit it immediately!
A sunbeam aimed directly at the hole played a fatal role in the fate of Hitler’s “William Tell”...
Why William Tell? As legend has it, one day the governor of the Swiss canton, Gessler, decided to find out whether a rebellion was brewing among the inhabitants of Uri. To do this, he ordered a pillar to be erected in the square and the ducal hat placed on it. Then the heralds announced that passersby were obliged to bow to this headdress, symbolizing the power of the Austrians, and those who refused would face death. Gritting their teeth, the residents obeyed the order, and only William Tell, who was walking in the square with his son, refused to bow to his hat. The German sniper did not lower his head...
In the army newspaper, the trick with a ray of light was painted in paint. And wow, this issue of “trench truth” fell into the hands of the enemy’s front-line scouts! This is how Paulus’s headquarters found out about Zaitsev and reported to the Fuhrer.
And soon the captured German during interrogation said that to hunt for the “main Russian hare,” as the German staff officers nicknamed Vasily, “the head of the Wehrmacht sniper school, Major Koenig,” arrived from Berlin (this is how the SS command disguised Standartenführer Thorwald, (der Koenig - the king ).
There were heated debates at night about the upcoming fight in the snipers' dugout. In order to destroy such a seasoned wolf, it was necessary to first “figure out” him, study his habits and techniques, and wait for the moment when it would be possible to fire just one, but sure, decisive shot. After all, life was at stake.
Each of Vasily’s comrades expressed his own guesses and assumptions, based on what he noticed at the enemy’s front line. They offered all sorts of bait that the Koenig could bite on.
“I knew the handwriting of fascist snipers by the nature of their fire and camouflage,” recalled Zaitsev, “and without much difficulty I distinguished more experienced shooters from beginners, cowards from stubborn and determined enemies. But the head of the school, his character remained a mystery to me...
Time passed, but the guest from the Fatherland showed no sign of himself. Zaitsev felt that an invisible enemy was somewhere nearby. But he often changed positions, apparently settling in either a water tower, or behind a damaged tank, or in a pile of bricks, and just as carefully as Zaitsev did, looking for him.
The best shooter of the Reich “sent his calling card” suddenly. The seriously wounded sniper Morozov was brought into the dugout.
An enemy bullet broke the optical sight and hit the right eye. Less than a few minutes later, his partner Sheikin was also wounded. These were Zaitsev’s most capable students, who more than once emerged victorious in fights with fascist riflemen. There was no doubt: the Koenig caught them.
At dawn, Vasily, together with Nikolai Kulikov, went to the positions where his comrades were wounded yesterday.
“Watching the familiar front line of the enemy, which I have studied for many days, I do not discover anything new,” wrote Zaitsev. - The day is ending. But then a helmet suddenly appears above the enemy trench and slowly moves along the trench. Fire? No! This is a trick: for some reason the helmet is swinging unnaturally, it is probably carried by the sniper’s assistant, and he himself is waiting for me to give myself away with a shot... Based on the patience that the enemy showed during the day, I guessed that the Berlin sniper was here. Special vigilance was required... The second day passed. Who will have stronger nerves? Who will outwit whom?
On the third day, officer Danilov went into the ambush together with Zaitsev and Kulikov. The battle was raging all around, shells and mines were flying overhead, but the trio of brave hunters, crouching to their optical instruments, kept an eye on what lay ahead.
- Yes, here it is, I’ll show you with my finger! — Danilov perked up.
Zaitsev wanted to warn the officer not to stick his head out, but it was too late. Carried away, Danilov rose above the parapet for just a moment, but that was enough for Koenig. The officer, wounded in the head, collapsed to the bottom of the trench. Hitler's champion shot...
“I peered at the enemy positions for a long time, but I couldn’t find his ambush. Based on the speed of the shot, I concluded that the sniper was somewhere right there,” Vasily Grigorievich recreates the intense fight.
- I continue to watch. On the left is a damaged tank, on the right is a bunker. Where is the fascist? In a tank? No, an experienced sniper will not sit there. Too noticeable a target. Maybe in a bunker? No, either - the embrasure is closed. Between the tank and the bunker on a flat area lies an iron sheet with a small pile of broken bricks. It’s been there for a long time, it’s become familiar. I put myself in the position of the enemy and wonder where it would be better to take a sniper post. Shouldn't we dig up a cell under that sheet at night and make hidden passages to it?
Zaitsev decided to check his assumption. He put a mitten on the board and lifted it. The fascist took the bait! Carefully lowering the bait and examining the hole, Vasily was convinced: no demolition, a direct hit. So, “Koenig” is under an iron sheet...
Now we need to lure him out and “put him on target.” At least the edge of your head. But now it is useless to achieve this. Too experienced, sophisticated enemy. Need time. The main thing is that he already understood his character. And he was sure: Koenig would not change this nest, it was too successful. But they definitely need to change their position...
During the night they equipped a new cell and moved in there before dawn. When the sun rose, Kulikov made a “blind” shot to interest the enemy. Then they waited for half a day - the glare of the optics could give away. In the afternoon, their rifles were in the shadows, but the direct rays of the sun fell on the iron sheet under which the Koenig was hiding. And then something sparkled at the edge of the sheet. A piece of glass laid out for bait or an optical sight?
Kulikov carefully, as only the most experienced fighters could do, began to lift the helmet mounted on the machine gun barrel. Immediately - a shot. Zaitsev’s partner screamed loudly and showed up for a moment.
“The Nazi thought that he had finally killed the Soviet sniper he was hunting for, and stuck half his head out of the under-sheet,” Vasily Grigorievich recalled the climactic moment. - He wanted to take a better look at me. That's what I was counting on. He hit it straight. The fascist’s head sank, and the glass in the eyepiece of his rifle’s sight, without moving, glittered in the sun until the evening...”
The bullet hit Torvald in the face and came out of the back of his head, piercing right through his helmet. Zaitsev and Kulikov pulled his corpse out from under the iron sheet at night, at the height of the battle, when Soviet troops in this area went on the attack and pushed back the enemy. In the pocket of the dead man’s jacket were documents addressed to “Major Koenig.” Zaitsev delivered them to the division commander. Vasily disdained the rifle of his defeated opponent and gave it to trophy collectors, but he kept the Zeiss scope for himself...
This fight between a simple Ural guy, who before the Nazi invasion hunted only forest game, with an SS war professional, equipped with the most advanced weapons, who, like no one else, knew how and even loved to kill representatives of the human race, is more than a duel of two shooters. This is a symbol of the great duel of our people with the devilish brown spawn... And of course, it is far from an accident that it was the Russian man who sent the fascist “angel of death” to hellfire.
Misfire
The duel with Torvald was Zaitsev's twelfth. And on the thirteenth, alas, there was a misfire.
- Order of the Red Banner, officer rank, everyone's attention. In a word, I was floating on the air,” Vasily Grigorievich said years later. “When a new sniper appeared from the enemy side, they sent for me like a celebrity. Kulikov and I went to the shooting range area to the hardware plant.
The carriages are lying broken, the guys are having breakfast. Hot buckwheat porridge with meat gravy. Before that I was hungry. There is slush and continuous fire along the Volga. The boats are not suitable... Not like crackers - every crumb was counted. And here - hot porridge! — About forty people received one hundred grams from the front. By the time breakfast arrived, less than thirty remained alive. Enjoy yourself to your heart's content. Winter after all...
The soldiers greeted them enthusiastically:
- Sit down, Comrade Lieutenant! Sharpen your eyes!
- I'm going to a duel!
- Why do you need a duel? What a bastard you killed!...
— I sharpened my eyes and ate. I took cover behind the carriage wheel, got ready, and let me, I think, check how he shoots. As soon as he raised his finger, it was blown away by an explosive bullet! That's it, I think the sniper Zaitsev is over... Which shooter am I without a finger?
While the sniper was grieving over his mistake, it got dark. By nightfall, a fresh battalion arrived from beyond the Volga. And immediately - go on the offensive. Zaitsev also goes on the attack. Hand-to-hand combat ensued in enemy trenches. Wounded again. I began to bandage myself, and then a shell exploded two steps away... Severe concussion. He lay there for more than a day, almost covered with earth.
As soon as the position was recaptured, the fallen soldiers began to be taken to Mamayev Kurgan to a mass grave. The funeral team also brought the lifeless Vasily there. And he would have laid down forever in the Stalingrad soil, but the nurse (her last name, Zaitsev later learned, was Vigovskaya) put her ear to his chest. And, what happiness, I heard my heartbeat! They sent a sniper who was almost buried alive beyond the Volga.
Need to live
He woke up in the hospital with a tight bandage over his eyes. Completely blind. Hemorrhage in the fundus of the eye, cornea covered with sand. 100% vision loss... But the eye surgeons performed a miracle. After several operations carried out under the guidance of Academician Vladimir Petrovich Filatov, Vasily began to see again. No worse than before!
On February 20, 1943, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Mikhail Kalinin, presented him with the gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin in the Kremlin. And the next day, Zaitsev, together with other famous shooters from all fronts, sat until late at night at a meeting at the General Staff, which was convened by Army General E.A. Shchadenko for the exchange of sniper experience and its further dissemination.
Vasily Grigorievich’s story about how in two months of fighting he destroyed 242 Nazis and trained 28 snipers right on the front line (and they killed another 1,106 fascists on the Volga bank) was published by the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army as a brochure. The hero shooter himself was sent to study at the Higher Academic Courses “Vystrel”. Zaitsev led a sniper school and wrote two textbooks. It is he who owns one of the “hunting” techniques that is still used today.
Then he again walked the front roads, being the commander of an anti-aircraft battery and an anti-aircraft division. Participated in the liberation of Donbass and Odessa, the battle for the Dnieper and the Berlin operation. At the Seelow Heights he was again seriously wounded and celebrated Victory Day in a hospital bed...
After his recovery, his military friends handed him his sniper rifle on the steps of the Reichstag, which after Stalingrad became the most expensive relic in his native Guards division and was passed on to the best shooter. The now legendary Zaitsev rifle is on display at the Battle of Stalingrad Museum in Volgograd. By the way, the Zeiss sight, which belonged to the SS Standartenführer and went to his winner as a trophy, can also be seen in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow...
The post-war life of Vasily Grigorievich was not cloudless. In the fall of 1945, with the rank of captain, he was demobilized for health reasons. Six orders and seven wounds. Disabled person of the second group. And his age is thirty years... But the desire to overcome everything, to overcome any illness and adversity still endowed this man with remarkable strength.
He graduated from the Kiev Technological Institute of Light Industry, and for many years was the director of the Ukraina garment factory, one of the largest in the Soviet Union. A ship that cruised along the Dnieper was named after him... Well-deserved popularity.
Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev died in Kyiv, and his ashes, as bequeathed, were reburied in Volgograd on Mamayev Kurgan.
By the way, when today you think about how the soldiers of our Fatherland surpassed and defeated the most powerful German army in the world, how they crushed the kingdom of the fascist beast, before which almost all of Europe obediently bowed, you involuntarily turn your gaze to Russian people like Vasily Zaitsev. They won, just as he won. Natural mind. Great patience. The height of the human spirit. We won by our faith...
Two feature films were made about Zaitsev: “Angels of Death” (Russia, 1992, directed by Yu.N. Ozerov, starring F. Bondarchuk) and “Enemy at the Gates” (USA, 2001, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, starring Jude Law
Training enemy snipers: a training film that is still shown today. Methods and tricks of snipers.
“Angels of Death” is an old Soviet war film about snipers (1993), created on the basis of film material from the two-part film “Stalingrad” (1989). Dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943).
"Enemy at the Gates" (fragment)
Experienced military personnel say that during a battle, only 5% of personnel fire consciously, accurately and truly effectively. The rest give results only due to mass participation.
Sniper Vasily Zaitsev belonged to the 5%, and in just over a month he destroyed more than 200 opponents. These included 11 “colleagues” of snipers who had undergone real training in their specialty. All the more offensive for them was the fact that their winner turned out to be yesterday's naval clerk.
Ural hunter
And there is nothing special about the origin of the hero. The events of Zaitsev's childhood could only predict that he would make a good shooter. And so - his pre-war biography is short and simple.
Vasily Zaitsev was born in 1915 in the village of Eleninka (today Chelyabinsk region). His grandfather was an avid hunter. He gave his grandson his first gun (at age 12!) and became his mentor (strict) in shooting. Vasily's parents were peasants. But he himself did not want to inherit the peasant farm. Vasya studied at school for only 7 years, but then he entered a technical school and learned to become a fitter. Later he completed more accounting courses.
Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev was drafted into the army in 1937.
But the beginning of his military biography did not hint that he would become a legendary sniper. Zaitsev began to serve in a field as far removed from sniper business as possible - in the navy, and even... as a clerk!
Clerk Vasya
It was about accounting training. Vasily served as a clerk in the artillery department and at the same time studied at the Military Economic School. After graduation, he received the honorary, but “non-military” position of head of the financial department.
Until now, military financiers are proud that the famous hero of the Battle of Stalingrad is rightfully included in their “workshop”. And although he left a “grain” position for the sake of the Stalingrad trench, he connected his post-war life with leadership work, and financial experience was not superfluous to him. The shooter also valued the fact of his service at sea. He remembered the Pacific Fleet with warmth, and throughout the war he wore a vest under his uniform, even though this was not according to the regulations.
Stalingrad infantryman
Although in peacetime Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev was satisfied with a financial position, during the war it seemed unacceptable to him to be away from battles. The request to be sent to the front was not accepted immediately, but he showed persistence - he submitted 5 (!) reports to be sent as a volunteer. The request was granted only in 1942. The need to ensure replenishment of the troops at Stalingrad can be considered one of the main reasons for this decision of the command.
Zaitsev did not undergo any special sniper training (although there were sniper schools in both Germany and the USSR).
And he joined the army as an ordinary infantry soldier. The only advantage over other conscripts was hunting training. As a clerk, he did not devote much time to combat training. Therefore, the sniper’s feat is not the result of good “pumping”, but of personality traits and special innate talent.
In the fall of 1942, during the defense of Stalingrad, Zaitsev demonstrated excellent aimed shooting skills. He used the usual “three-line” rifle - the Mosin system rifle. Personal “records” in the Red Army were meticulously recorded, but the command acknowledged the fact that he had destroyed at least three enemy soldiers from a distance of 800 m (this is a lot for a non-specialized rifle, even by modern standards), and in total in the first days the number of Nazis killed by Zaitsev reached 32 Human.
The feat was appreciated by the command. The fighter was awarded a medal, paid a monetary reward and presented with a real sniper rifle. The infantryman became a sniper. No preparation. I just took it and started doing it.
Stalingrad hunt
The Battle of Stalingrad provides an example of particularly effective sniper teams. Zaitsev’s heroic comrades-in-arms (snipers) numbered in the dozens, and during the months of particularly stubborn fighting at Stalingrad, they destroyed about 6 thousand enemy soldiers.
At the same time, Vasily not only personally engaged in “hunting”, but also led other snipers, showing them examples of correct battle tactics.
It is important to remember that Zaitsev was virtually self-taught in sniper business, but quickly became famous. The art of a sniper is not only the ability to accurately hit a target from a long distance. Any trained shooter with experience can do this. And the sniper’s task is not the same as that of an ordinary soldier. He must carry out the orders of the command, and in the process destroy any enemy he can. The sniper deals with especially cautious and protected targets - officers, spotters, and other snipers.
And perhaps the main thing in his skill is to be able to choose the right position and remain on it for hours without moving, preventing himself from being detected by the enemy. You need to be able to disguise yourself, your weapons and your intentions.
Zaitsev developed several new techniques in this area and improved existing ones. Some of his inventions are still in use today.
Vasily Zaitsev considered it necessary for the sniper to frequently change positions, but in such a way as not to impair visibility of the target. According to his method, positions should have been looked after during a lull, and not when there was already an order to act.
Zaitsev was strict about the issue of target detection. He rechecked the object several times to eliminate mistakes and not accidentally destroy a low-value enemy, leaving the true target intact. He did not fire at random to alarm the enemy. If it was necessary to complete a task, he entrusted the task to his partner. Vasily himself took every shot responsibly. But he knew and successfully used techniques designed to force the enemy to shoot inaccurately and reveal himself.
At the same time, to detect the enemy, Zaitsev used the laws of ballistics - he studied the direction and angle of the bullet hitting a false target (helmet, mitten, item of clothing). In terms of tactics, he believed that a sniper should be able not only to destroy the enemy, but also to defend himself - the living are more useful.
Mentor of the young
During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet sniper trained dozens of young replacements personally - first directly in the trenches, then at the sniper school. But his experience did not go away with him; it is still used in the army.
They are successfully used in training modern snipers (and therefore are classified, a random person cannot view them on the Internet). He also wrote memoirs - a valuable source on the history of Stalingrad and sniper combat. “Notes of a Sniper” is a popular book that makes an impression even on modern youth who are far from the realities of war.
Until old age, sniper Vasily Zaitsev retained his faithful eye and steady hand. The hero's biography contains such an episode. He was 65 years old when he was invited as a guest of honor to the sniper school for the graduation of cadets. During the demonstration shooting, the veteran (almost as a joke) was asked to “show his class” to the young ones. Zaitsev took a rifle from one of them and knocked out 30 points with three shots. As a result, the award for excellent shooting was given not to the best graduate, but to the guest of honor.
The most famous episode of Zaitsev’s Stalingrad biography is a duel with a German ace, a master sniper. It was even used as the basis for film scripts. Sniper fire at Stalingrad worried the Nazis. They also knew about the sniper Vasily Zaitsev as a particularly formidable enemy. Therefore, it is generally accepted that the “specialist from Berlin” arrived specifically to “hunt the Hare” - demonstrative destruction of the best enemy and demoralization of the rest.
Sources agree that he was a famous professional. But they disagree on the question of what his name was. It seems that he had documents with him in the name of Erwin Koenig. But they showed signs of being fake. Therefore, British researcher Alan Clark believes that Zaitsev’s opponent was Colonel Heinz Thorwald, the head of an elite sniper school. Whatever his name, he was a strong opponent. But he clearly had not hunted hares before and did not know that experienced hunters considered this a dangerous activity.
Only a specialist can understand in detail the beauty of Zaitsev’s fight with the German ace.
To put it briefly, the Berlin guest challenged the enemy by killing two Soviet snipers in one day. He camouflaged himself perfectly and was distinguished by enviable patience.
Zaitsev used his entire arsenal against him - analysis of the enemy’s actions, changing positions, false attack of his partner, study of hitting a false target. As a result, for a short moment he was able to see part of the enemy’s head, and this was enough for a single shot.
Fame came to him immediately, but did not save the hero from the vicissitudes of fate. Soon after the fight with the Berliner, Zaitsev was seriously wounded and temporarily lost his sight. The Moscow Filatov Clinic solved the problem through operations and long-term treatment. He had to change his profile, but he continued his service - he headed a sniper school and commanded a mortar crew. He liberated the Donbass, participated in the crossing of the Dnieper, and ended the war in Kyiv - albeit in a hospital bed, after being wounded again.
Sniper iconostasis
Zaitsev Vasily Grigorievich - Hero of the Soviet Union, winner of two Orders of the Red Banner and the Order of the Patriotic War, medals “For Courage” and “For the Defense of Stalingrad”. Until his death, he was an honorary citizen of Volgograd.
He is depicted in the “Battle of Stalingrad” panorama, and a monument was erected to him in his native village.
Based on the biography of the legendary sniper, 2 feature films were made (including the foreign film “Enemy at the Gates”). His activities are reflected in the exhibition of the Stalingrad Defense Museum.
The question of how many fascists the fighter destroyed is still open. Officially, he was credited with 225 enemy fighters for the period from November 10 to December 17, 1942. Rumors attribute twice the result to the hero, and it is probably greater than even these assumptions. But then there was a war, and this was not a record in sniper business - there were Soviet snipers who made more successful shots. But Zaitsev was distinguished by the highest “rate of fire” - he achieved his result in a short time.
The sniper rifle of Vasily Zaitsev became famous no less than its owner.
She was nothing special - an ordinary army sample. Now Vasily Zaitsev’s rifle is in the Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad. But several more types of weapons are associated with the sniper’s name:
- Mosin rifle - he started with it;
- Dragunov’s “snipers” - he helped test them;
- fictional super rifles from several modern computer games.
True, the “sofa” heroes of computer battles did not learn one thing - a sniper rifle needs a sniper, preferably a strong man with an established psyche, and not an overgrown “child”.
The post-war years passed successfully for the hero. He stayed in Kyiv - nationality was not important in his time. Vasily graduated from the Institute of Light Industry, ran a garment factory, and was in administrative work.
In Kyiv he got married and started a family.
But his relationship with independent Ukraine did not work out. The sniper died on December 15, 1991 - 2 weeks after the independence referendum. He was buried in Kyiv against his will. And only in 2006 the ashes were transferred to Volgograd (according to the wishes of Zaitsev himself). And that’s the thing - could he calmly lie in the immediate vicinity of the street named after the Ukrainian nationalist Olena Teliga (there is one not far from the Lukyanovsky memorial cemetery)?
Now the sniper is resting on Mamayev Kurgan. And the words of Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev “There is no land beyond the Volga!” are considered the most accurate reflection of the essence of the Stalingrad epic.
Video
Born on March 23, 1915 in the village of Elininsk, Agapovsky district, Chelyabinsk region, in the family of a hunter. Helping his grandfather in the fishery together with his brother, Vasily mastered shooting skills, learned to be modest, not to boast about his prey, and to overcome fear. Still would! Spending the night far away in the Taiga in winter is a real test of courage.
He graduated from seven classes of junior high school. In 1930 he graduated from a construction college in the city of Magnitogorsk, where he received a specialty as a reinforcement engineer.
Since 1937, he served in the Pacific Fleet, where he was assigned as a clerk in the artillery department. The diligent, disciplined sailor was accepted into the Komsomol. After studying at the Military Economic School, he was appointed head of the financial department in the Pacific Fleet, in Preobrazhenye Bay. The war found him in this position.
By the summer of 1942, Petty Officer 1st Article Zaitsev had already submitted five reports with a request to be sent to the front. Finally, the commander granted his request and Zaitsev left for the active army. On a dark September night in 1942, together with other Pacific Islanders, Zaitsev crossed the Volga and began to participate in the battles for the city.
Already in the first battles with the enemy, Zaitsev showed himself to be an outstanding shooter. One day the battalion commander called Zaitsev and pointed out the window. The fascist was running 800 meters away. The sailor took careful aim. A shot rang out and the German fell. A few minutes later, two more invaders appeared in the same place. They suffered the same fate. As a reward, Zaitsev received a sniper rifle along with the medal "For Courage". By that time, Zaitsev had killed 32 Nazis from a simple “three-line rifle”. Soon people in the regiment, division, and army started talking about him.
Zaitsev combined all the qualities inherent in a sniper - visual acuity, sensitive hearing, restraint, composure, endurance, military cunning. He knew how to choose the best positions and disguise them; usually hid from the Nazis in places where they could not even imagine a Soviet sniper. The famous sniper hit the enemy mercilessly. Only in the period from November 10 to December 17, 1942, in the battles for Stalingrad, V.G. Zaitsev destroyed 225 enemy soldiers and officers, including 11 snipers, and his comrades in arms in the 62nd Army - 6000.
One day Zaitsev made his way to a burnt house and climbed into a dilapidated black stove. From this unusual position, two entrances to the enemy dugouts and the approach to the basement of the house where the Germans were preparing food were clearly visible. A sniper killed 10 fascists that day.
One dark night, Zaitsev made his way to the front along a narrow path. Somewhere not far away a fascist sniper had taken refuge; it must be destroyed. For about 20 minutes Zaitsev examined the area, but could not find the hidden enemy “hunter”. Pressing himself tightly against the wall of the barn, the sailor stuck out his mitten; she was violently torn from her hand.
Having examined the hole, he moved to another place and did the same. And again the shot. Zaitsev clung to the stereo tube. I began to carefully scan the area. A shadow flashed on one of the hills. Here! Now we need to lure the fascist out and take aim. Zaitsev lay in ambush all night. At dawn the German sniper was killed.
The actions of the Soviet snipers alarmed the enemies, and they decided to take urgent measures. When our scouts captured the prisoner, he reported that the European champion in bullet shooting, the head of the Berlin sniper school, Major König, had been delivered by plane to the Stalingrad area from Berlin, who had received the task of killing, first of all, the “main” Soviet sniper.
The fascist sniper who appeared on the front was experienced and cunning. He often changed positions, settling down in a water tower, in a damaged tank, or in a pile of bricks. Daily observations did not give anything definite. It was difficult to say where the fascist was.
But then an incident happened. The enemy broke the optical sight of Ural resident Morozov, and wounded soldier Shaikin. Morozov and Shaikin were considered experienced snipers; they often emerged victorious in complex and difficult battles with the enemy. There was no longer any doubt - they had stumbled upon the fascist “super sniper” that Zaitsev was looking for.
Zaitsev went to the position previously occupied by his students and friends. With him was his faithful front-line friend Nikolai Kulikov. On the leading edge, every bump, every stone is familiar. Where could the enemy be hiding? Zaitsev's attention was drawn to a pile of bricks and a sheet of iron next to it. It was here that the Berlin “guest” could find refuge.
Nikolai Kulikov was constantly waiting for the order to shoot in order to attract the enemy’s attention. And Zaitsev watched. The whole day went by like this.
Before dawn, the warriors again went into ambush. Zaitsev in one trench, Kulikov in another. Between them there is a rope for signals. Time dragged on agonizingly. Planes were buzzing in the sky. Somewhere nearby shells and mines were exploding. But Zaitsev did not pay attention to anything. He did not take his eyes off the iron sheet.
When it dawned and the enemy positions were clearly visible, Zaitsev pulled the rope. At this conditioned signal, his comrade raised the mitten he was wearing on the board. The expected shot did not come from the other side. An hour later, Kulikov raised his mitten again. The long-awaited crack of a rifle shot rang out. The hole confirmed Zaitsev’s assumption: the fascist was under an iron sheet. Now we had to take aim at him.
However, you can’t rush: you can get scared. Zaitsev and Kulikov changed their positions. They watched all night. We also waited out the first half of the next day. And in the afternoon, when the direct rays of the sun fell on the enemy’s position, and our snipers’ rifles were in the shadows, our combat friends began to act. Something sparkled at the edge of the iron sheet. A random piece of glass? No. It was the optical sight of a fascist sniper's rifle.
Kulikov carefully, as an experienced sniper can do, began to lift his helmet. The fascist fired. The helmet fell. The German, apparently, concluded that he had won the fight - he had killed the Soviet sniper, whom he had been hunting for 4 days. Deciding to check the result of his shot, he stuck half his head out of the cover. And then Zaitsev pulled the trigger. He hit it straight. The fascist’s head sank, and the optical sight of his rifle, without moving, glittered in the sun until the evening.
As soon as it got dark, our units went on the attack. Behind a sheet of iron, the soldiers found the body of a fascist officer. This was the head of the Berlin sniper school, Major Koenig.
Vasily Zaitsev did not have the opportunity to celebrate the victorious completion of the grandiose Battle of Stalingrad with his military friends. In January 1943, following the order of the division commander to disrupt a German attack on the right-flank regiment by Zaitsev’s sniper group, which at that time consisted of only 13 people, he was seriously wounded and blinded by a mine explosion. Only on February 10, 1943, after several operations performed in Moscow by Professor Filatov, his vision returned.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated February 22, 1943, for courage and military valor shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, junior lieutenant Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 801).
Throughout the war V.G. Zaitsev served in the army, in whose ranks he began his combat career, headed a sniper school, commanded a mortar platoon, and then was a company commander. He crushed the enemy in the Donbass, participated in the battle for the Dnieper, fought near Odessa and on the Dniester. May 1945 Captain V.G. I met Zaitsev in Kyiv - again in the hospital.
During the war years V.G. Zaitsev wrote two textbooks for snipers, and also invented the still used technique of sniper hunting with “sixes” - when three pairs of snipers (a shooter and an observer) cover the same battle zone with fire.
He visited Berlin after the end of the war. There I met with friends who had gone through the battle route from the Volga to the Spree. In a solemn ceremony, Zaitsev was presented with his sniper rifle with the inscription: “To the Hero of the Soviet Union, Vasily Zaitsev, who buried more than 300 fascists in Stalingrad.”
Nowadays this rifle is kept in the Volgograd Museum of City Defense. Next to it there is a sign: “During the period of street fighting in the city, sniper of the 284th Infantry Division V.G. Zaitsev used this rifle to destroy more than 300 Nazis, taught 28 Soviet soldiers the art of sniper. When Zaitsev was wounded, this rifle was passed on to the best snipers of the unit.” .
After the end of the Great Patriotic War, he was demobilized and settled in Kyiv. At first he was the commandant of the Pechersk region. He studied in absentia at the All-Union Institute of Textile and Light Industry and became an engineer. He worked as director of a machine-building plant, director of the "Ukraine" clothing factory, and headed the light industry technical school.
Died on December 15, 1991. He was buried in Kyiv at the Lukyanovskoye military cemetery, although his last wish was to be buried in the Stalingrad land that he defended. On January 31, 2006, the ashes of Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev were transported to the hero city of Volgograd, and solemnly reburied on Mamayev Kurgan.
He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and medals. By the decision of the Volgograd City Council of People's Deputies of May 7, 1980, for special services shown in the defense of the city and the defeat of Nazi troops in the Battle of Stalingrad, he was awarded the title "Honorary Citizen of the Hero City of Volgograd."
The name of the Hero is given to a motor ship that cruised along the Dnieper. In the city of Yaroslavl, at the memorial to military financiers, a bust of the Hero was installed.
Famous sniper during World War II. Streets are named after him, most people in the post-Soviet space know about him. History remembers Vasily as one of the most effective shooters.
Vasily Zaitsev: biography
Vasily was born on March 23, 1915 in the village of Eleninka, Orenburg region (now Chelyabinsk region) into an ordinary peasant family. He studied at a rural school, where he graduated from 7th grade. At the age of 15, he graduated from a construction technical school, where he studied to become a fitter.
Since childhood, Vasily’s grandfather, Andrei, often took him and his brother hunting with him. Already at the age of 12, the future sniper had a gun. The grandfather taught his grandchildren the intricacies of hunting, tracking, patience and shooting sense. Perhaps these lessons predetermined Vasily’s future.
In 1937, Vasily Zaitsev served as a clerk in the Pacific Fleet. Then he undergoes training in accounting and continues to serve as the head of the financial department. With the outbreak of war, he asks the command to send him to the front. After 5 reports he gets the go-ahead. And 27-year-old Vasily is sent to the zone of the most fierce and bloody battles - to Stalingrad. Later, in a city on the Volga, where the Nazi invasion was stopped, he will say his famous phrase: “There is no land for us beyond the Volga. We have stood and will stand to the death!”
Sniper of the 62nd Army
Before the front, Vasily underwent some training. From the first days, he proved himself to be an extremely accurate shooter, killing 3 Nazis from a distance of almost a kilometer with an ordinary rifle. The command transferred him to the sniper group. There he received a sniper - a mass-produced weapon, quite simple. From it, Zaitsev managed to destroy 32 invaders. After this, the rookie sniper becomes famous among the entire group of troops.
Hunt for the hunter
In almost one month, Vasily kills 225 fascists. Rumors about him are spreading throughout the country and even around the world. In the partially occupied and almost completely destroyed Stalingrad, the name of Zaitsev is of particular importance. He becomes a real hero, one of the symbols of resistance. Leaflets with new achievements of the shooter are regularly distributed among the population and personnel of the Red Army.
The Nazi leadership hears rumors about Vasily Zaitsev. They understand his importance in propaganda terms, so they send their best ace sniper on a mission to kill the Soviet marksman. This ace was Major König (according to other sources - Heinz Thorwald, possibly König's call sign). He trained snipers in a special school and was a true professional. Immediately upon arrival, he wounds one Red Army rifleman and falls into the weapon of another. Conventional sniper rifles zoom in 3-4 times, since working with high magnification is already difficult for the shooter. The magnification on the Nazi major’s rifle was tenfold! This speaks volumes about Koenig's professionalism and virtuosity.
Fight with the Major
Having learned about the arrival of a super sniper in the city, the Soviet leadership gives the order to destroy him personally to Zaitsev; later this battle will be considered legendary. It reflected not only the battle of two snipers, but also the battle of two peoples, two ideologies.
After long tracking, Vasily discovered Koenig's position. The long wait paid off: a ray of sun momentarily reflected from the German’s optics. This was enough for Vasily; a second later the Nazi fell dead. Soviet propaganda joyfully informed the people: Vasily Zaitsev won. The Hero of the Soviet Union will later describe in detail
After the war, he remained to live in Kyiv. He worked as a manager at a clothing factory.
Died in 1991. 15 years later he was reburied with honors in Stalingrad, as he had bequeathed.
Vasily Zaitsev: film
The figure of the Soviet sniper was widely reflected in culture: many documentaries were shot and a considerable number of works were written. The most famous feature film about Vasily Zaitsev is “Enemy at the Gates,” an American production. Jude Law plays the role of Zaitsev.
The main storyline revolves around the fight between Vasily Zaitsev and Koenig. There is also a parallel love story with a sniper girl and Vasily’s friend. Shot in 2001, the film boasts magnificent visual effects. The scene of crossing the Volga and the landing of Soviet troops in Stalingrad turned out to be extremely colorful and catchy. It demonstrates the heavy losses of the Soviet troops: blood everywhere, the dead lying next to the living, pain, screams, panic. The scenery of Stalingrad itself also turned out quite good: devastation, concrete desert - it all looks very atmospheric. A large crowd allows you to appreciate the scale of the battles.
But the film was shot by Americans, so there was some propaganda involved. The Soviet leadership is shown entirely as cowards, bloodthirsty killers, and tyrants. The scene when newly arrived recruits launch a frontal attack on a tank with one rifle between them, and then the commanders shoot their own in the back, makes you think. There are also a number of inconsistencies. For example, the commander of Zaitsev and the entire Stalingrad Front was Khrushchev, who in reality was not even close there. It’s just that the colorful figure of Nikita Sergeevich is very familiar to American people.
"Enemy at the Gates" is a good movie from a purely technical point of view, but spoiled by propaganda. However, if you ignore the obvious American component, you can watch it with pleasure.