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The Russian Army is notorious for its history of mass rapes where everywhere it deployed.
Putting these girls in small sniper units probably saved them from a great deal of discomfort.
The 4th one down is Kyra Petrovskaya Wayne; my wife sometimes includes her in historical displays honoring woman of WWII. She is 97 years old and lives near us. She managed to marry an American diplomat in 1946 and “escaped” from the Soviet Union.
She has written over a dozen books. My favorite is her autobiographical work about her experiences living through the siege of Stalingrad. Just about every relative she had in the Soviet Union died during WWII. It is a gripping tale. We have met many of her friends and relatives over the years. My wife has had limited contact with her through emails.
During WWII the Soviets calculated that women were less valuable soldiers than men. Women were often given assignments where the chance of survival was less than certain, rather than wasting a man.
Well?
Yeah, she can aim at me anytime.
However, I must take exception to a sentence in the article that said “semiautomatic” rifles. I am not aware of any semiautomatic rifle used by the Russian forces as a sniper weapon. If someone has information that I am not aware of please post such info.
Approx. 185,000 Mosin sniper rifles were produced. (page 211 of the collectors book I put a link to.) Hard to find an original one as many were refurbished into regular 91/30 rifles, though there are many repros out there for around $700. The Finnish soldier, Simo Haya used a Mosin to kill many of stalin’s soldiers.