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I found a web site several years ago in which two guys did a massive amount of research to determine the accuracy of the various nations claims for air to air victories.

They finally concluded that the Germans were the most accurate followed by the U.S. then Japan and last of all Russia.

Despite the fact that many of the Japanese claims turned out to be false, they did not think they were purposely lying. A lot of things happen in the fog of war which can cause mistakes.

The Russians tho were just plain making it up. Of course they really did shoot down a lot of German planes but their claims were way overstated.

I suspect the same is true of their sniper claims.

For instance the famous Stalingrad sniper battle between Major Koenig and Zaitsev actually never happened. That is not to say that Zaitsev (however you spell his name) was not a deadly sniper. I suppose there were a lot of those Russian female sniper who did indeed kill Germans, just the totals were not even close to being accurate.

The Wehrmacht suffered huge casualties to snipers at Stalingrad. Every history of the battle documents this so I don’t think there is any doubt about it. The history of female snipers in the Soviet Army is also extremely well documented. As to real numbers in the fog of war - who knows?

Stalingrad was reduced to a rats maze of rubble and the fighting was often close range (less than 50m). The Soviets also “pushed” their troops through the initial barrage so that the German lines were continually penetrated and the Soviets used snipers the same way machineguns were used - to pin the enemy down. The number of snipers used by the Soviet military was impressive and they supported their pushes and came in on the back end to take up new positions. This was a source of study at the infantry school years ago (suspect it still is).

Snipers are an integral part of the infantry and their effectiveness is well documented. The Soviets also used them to protect their flanks, but then again Uncle Joe cared little about casualties. The Russians were reckless and brutal in the extreme and it is little wonder the Wehrmacht was terrified of them.