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Vasily Zaitsev
Zaitsev in 1943
Native name	Василий Григорьевич Зайцев
Born	(1915-03-23)23 March 1915 Yeleninskoye, Orenburg Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	15 December 1991(1991-12-15) (aged 76) Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Buried	Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd, Russia (from 2006)
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Years of service	1937–1945
Rank	Captain
Battles / wars	World War II Eastern Front Battle of Stalingrad Battle of Seelow Heights
Awards	See list

Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev (Russian: Васи́лий Григо́рьевич За́йцев, IPA: [vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲjɪvʲɪdʑ ˈzajtsɨf]; 23 March 1915 – 15 December 1991) was a Soviet sniper during World War II.

Between 22 September 1942 and 19 October 1942, he killed 40 enemy soldiers. Between 10 October 1942 and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 enemy soldiers.

Zaitsev became a celebrated figure during the war and later a Hero of the Soviet Union, and he remains lauded for his skills as a sniper. His life and military career have been the subject of several books and films: his exploits, as detailed in William Craig's 1973 book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad, served as the story for the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates, with Jude Law portraying Zaitsev. He is also featured in David L. Robbins's 1999 historical novel War of the Rats.

Early life

Zaitsev was born in Yeleninskoye, Orenburg Governorate in a Russian peasant family and grew up in the Ural Mountains, where he learned marksmanship by hunting deer and wolves with his grandfather and older brother. He brought home his first trophy at the age of 12, a wolf that he killed with a single bullet from his first personal gun (given to him by his grandfather), a single-shot 20-gauge shotgun.

In 1930, Zaitsev graduated from construction college in the city of Magnitogorsk, where he received the speciality of fitter. He also studied accounting.

From 1937, Zaitsev served in the Pacific Fleet, where he was clerk of the artillery department. After studying at military school, he was appointed head of the finance department of the Pacific Fleet in Transfiguration Bay.

Military career

Zaitsev was serving in the Soviet Navy as a clerk in Vladivostok when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Like many of his comrades, he volunteered for transfer to the front line. He had attained the rank of chief petty officer in the Navy and was assigned the rank of senior warrant officer upon transfer to the army. He was assigned to the 1047th Rifle Regiment of the 284th "Tomsk" Rifle Division, which became part of the 62nd Army at Stalingrad on 17 September 1942.

Zaitsev's accuracy with a rifle led to him becoming a sniper. Zaitsev would conceal himself in various locations, for example on high ground, under rubble, or in water pipes. After a few kills, he would change his position or relocate. Together with his partner, Nikolai Kulikov, Zaitsev perfected his hide and sting tactics. One method was to cover a large area from three positions, with two men at each point – a sniper and a scout. This tactic, known as the "sixes", is still in use today by Russian forces and was implemented during the Chechen wars.

Zaitsev fought at the Battle of Stalingrad until January 1943, when a mortar attack injured his eyes. Some conflicting stories state it was a landmine, but the doctor who treated Zaitsev and eventually restored his eyesight was ophthalmologist Vladimir Filatov, founder of the Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy in Odessa, and a pioneer in corneal transplantation. Had Zaitsev been injured by a landmine, an ophthalmologist would not have treated him. According to Soviet sources, before his injury he had killed 225 people in the Battle of Stalingrad alone.

On 22 February 1943, Zaitsev was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Zaitsev recruited and trained other marksmen during his service in Stalingrad. He returned to the front, and finished the war at the Battle of the Seelow Heights in Germany, with the military rank of captain. He became a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1943.

Civilian life

After the war, Zaitsev settled in Kiev (now Kyiv), where he studied at a textile university before obtaining employment as an engineer. He rose to become the director of a textile factory, where he remained until his death on 15 December 1991 in Kiev, at the age of 76, just 11 days before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was buried in Kiev, although he wished to be buried in the Stalingrad land that he had defended.

2006 commemoration

On 31 January 2006, Vasily Zaitsev was reburied with full military honors at the Stalingrad memorial at Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia.

In popular culture

Film

A feature-length film, Enemy at the Gates (2001), starring Jude Law as Zaitsev, was based on part of William Craig's book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad (1973), which includes a "snipers' duel" between Zaitsev and a Wehrmacht sniper school director, Major Erwin König. Zaitsev indicates in his own memoirs that a three-day duel did indeed occur and that the sniper he killed was the head of a sniper school near Berlin; however, historian Sir Antony Beevor states that the Russian Ministry of Defence archives contradict this and that the duel had been created by the Soviet propaganda. Russian researcher Oleg Kaminsky suggests that the duel could have been between Zaitsev and the German corporal Hermann Stoff of the 295th Infantry Division, who was responsible for 103 killed Red Army soldiers and commanders and who died in Stalingrad at this time.

Literature

David L. Robbins's historical novel War of the Rats (1991) includes a sniper duel in Stalingrad, but between Zaitsev and a German adversary named Colonel Heinz Thorvald, identified in the author's introduction as an actual combatant. Ramón Rosanas wrote a comic about the conflict between Zaitsev and König.

Awards and honors

• Hero of the Soviet Union
• Four Orders of Lenin
• Two Orders of the Red Banner
• Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class
• Medal "For Courage"
• Honorary Citizen of the Hero City of Volgograd (Stalingrad)
• World's Best Sniper of All Time (Moskva)

References

1. ^ "Medal "For Courage" award list, page 62". Pamyat Naroda (in Russian).
2. "Hero of the Soviet Union award list". Pamyat Naroda (in Russian).
3. "Vasily Zaitsev". Warheroes.ru.
4. "Hollywood recycles Soviet tale". 9 November 2000.
5. Sharp, Charles C. Sharp (1996). "Red Swarm". Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II. Vol. X. p. 108.
6. Balestrieri, Steve (26 July 2021). "Legendary Stalingrad Sniper Vasily Zaytsev Still Teaches Russian Snipers". Sofrep Military Grade Content. Sofrep Media Group. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
7. Zaitsev, Vassili (March 3, 2017). Notes of a Russian Sniper. 5206 S harper Ave, Chicago, IL: Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1-84832-565-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
8. "Василий Зайцев будет похоронен на сталинградской земле". Pravda. 2006-10-31. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-04-21.
9. Beevor, Antony (29 May 2018). "Antony Beevor: the greatest war movie ever – and the ones I can't bear". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
10. Website, original quote: "Средствами массовой информации была растиражирована версия, что в снайперском поединке он победил то ли майора Эрвина Кёнигса, то ли штандартенфюрера СС Гейнца Торвальда, начальника школы снайперов в Цоссене. Однако всё это досужие выдумки падких на сенсации журналистов, хотя бы потому, что офицеры такого высокого ранга никогда не занимались снайперской охотой. Зато с большой долей вероятности можно предположить, что сраженным Зайцевым снайпером был ефрейтор Герман Штоф из 295-й немецкой пехотной дивизии, на счету которого были 103 убитых красноармейца и командира Красной Армии и, который погиб в Сталинграде примерно в это время…"
11. Robbins, David L. (1999). War of the Rats. Bantam.
12. Jiménez, Jesús (19 August 2013). "Ramón Rosanas lleva al cómic al famoso francotirador ruso Vasili Záitsev". Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 January 2019.

Further reading

• Zaitsev, Vassili (2003) . Okrent, Neil (ed.). Notes of a Sniper. Translated by Givens, David; Kornakov, Peter; Kornakov, Konstatin (1st English translation ed.). Los Angeles: 2826 Press Inc. ISBN 0-615-12148-9.
• Beevor, Antony (1998). Stalingrad. London: Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0-14-100131-9.
• Robbins, David L. (2000). War of the Rats. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-58135-5.
• The Reader's Digest Illustrated History of World War II (1989). London: Reader's Digest Association Limited. ISBN 978-0-89577-333-3

External links

v t e Battle of Stalingrad
Airfields Axis order of battle Red Army order of battle Bombing of Stalingrad in World War II German commanders German units
Operations  Nazi Germany Donnerschlag Winter Storm  Soviet Union Uranus Little Saturn Koltso
Formations Army groups and fronts B Centre Don Don Southwestern Stalingrad Voronezh Armies Axis German 4th Panzer German 6th Hungarian 2nd Italian 8th Romanian 3rd and 4th 1st Guards 2nd Guards 3rd Guards 21st 51st 62nd 64th 65th Corps XIV Panzer XXXX Panzer XXXXVIII Panzer IV VIII XI LI 8th Air Tank 1st 4th 13th 16th 24th 26th others 4th Mechanised 3rd Guards Cavalry 4th Cavalry 8th Cavalry Divisions Panzer 6th 14th 16th 17th 22nd 24th Infantry 3rd Motorised 29th Motorised 60th Motorised 5th 44th 71st 76th 79th 94th 100th 113th 295th 297th 305th 371st 376th 384th 389th others 9th Flak Guards Rifle 13th 15th 33rd 35th 36th 37th 39th Rifle 38th 45th 62nd 64th 91st 93rd 95th 112th 138th 157th 169th 173rd 181st 193rd 196th 204th 214th 221st 248th 284th 302nd 308th 422nd others 60th Cavalry 81st Cavalry
Notable participants Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler Alexander Edler von Daniels Hermann Göring Hermann Hoth Hans-Valentin Hube Erich von Manstein Friedrich Paulus Wolfram von Richthofen Arthur Schmidt Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach Karl Strecker Romania Constantin Constantinescu-Claps Petre Dumitrescu Mihail Lascăr Other Axis members Viktor Pavičić (Croatia) Italo Gariboldi (Italy) Gusztáv Jány (Hungary) Soviet Union Joseph Stalin Hazi Aslanov Vasily Badanov Vasily Chuikov Nikolay Dyatlenko Sasha Filippov Filipp Golikov Vasily Gordov Vasily Grossman Nikita Khrushchev Nikolay Krylov Dmitry Lelyushenko Rodion Malinovsky Kirill Moskalenko Yakov Pavlov Alexander Rodimtsev Konstantin Rokossovsky Alexander Shcherbakov Semyon Timoshenko Aleksandr Vasilevsky Nikolay Voronov Erich Weinert Andrei Yeremenko Vasily Zaitsev Aleksey Zhadov Georgy Zhukov
Significant locations Barmaley Fountain Barrikady Factory Grain Elevator Gumrak Kalach Mamayev Kurgan Pavlov's House Pitomnik Airfield Red October Steel Factory River Don River Volga Tatsinskaya Airfield Tsaritsa Gorge Tractor Plant
In memoriam The Motherland Calls Stalingrad Madonna Sword of Stalingrad Battle of Stalingrad in popular culture
See also Battle of the Caucasus Battle of Kursk Case Blue Operation Barbarossa Second Battle of Kharkov Third Battle of Kharkov Volgograd

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