Remembering the “Magnificent Feats” of Roza Shanina

“The Unseen Terror…”

(Roza Shanina)

Of the more than 800,000 women who served in the Soviet Armed Forces during the Second World War, almost all of them fought on the frontline.

And yet, on Germany’s invasion of the USSR in June 1941, vast numbers were turned away when they volunteered to serve in defense of their Motherland.

In and among those women was Russian-born Roza Shanina, who, having tried to join the Russian Red Army with her brothers at the time, was told quite categorically that, as a “young, fair-haired, delicate beauty”, she was “far too fragile for the demands of combat duty…”

(Born and raised on a collective farm in the remote Russian village of Edma, Roza grew up there with her five brothers, two sisters, and three adopted siblings, who, after losing their parents, were taken in by Roza’s mother and father. Here, she can be seen, aged 15, with one of her adopted siblings, on the eve of the Second World War.)

That all changed, however, in early 1942 when, as the German Wehrmacht renewed its offensive — and the Soviet High Command sought to replace its devastating losses — “young” and “fragile” beauties like Roza were encouraged to enlist in their “patriotic masses”.

After excelling in her basic training, she won a coveted place at the newly created Central Women’s Sniper School, where, following months of honing her “innate shooting skills”, she graduated with the rank of senior sergeant.