Vasily Grigorevich Zaytsev was a
Soviet sniperSnipers of the Soviet Union played an important role mainly on the Eastern Front of World War II, apart from other preceding and subsequent conflicts. In World War II, Soviet snipers used the 7.62x54R rifle cartridge with light, heavy, armour-piercing , armour-piercing-and-incendiary ,...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945 which involved most of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, notable particularly for his activities between November 10 and December 17, 1942 during the
Battle of StalingradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. It took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943, and is often cited as the turning point of the war in Europe...
. He killed 225 soldiers and officers of the
WehrmachtThe Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe ....
and other
AxisThe Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II...
armies, including 6 enemy
sniperA sniper is a highly trained marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
s.
Prior to November 10, he had already killed 32 Axis soldiers with the standard-issue
Mosin-NagantThe Mosin–Nagant is a bolt-action, internal magazine fed, military rifle used by the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and various other nations....
rifle. Between October 1942 and January 1943, Zaytsev made 242 verified kills.
Zaytsev was nearly killed by an enemy sniper.
Vasily Grigorevich Zaytsev was a
Soviet sniperSnipers of the Soviet Union played an important role mainly on the Eastern Front of World War II, apart from other preceding and subsequent conflicts. In World War II, Soviet snipers used the 7.62x54R rifle cartridge with light, heavy, armour-piercing , armour-piercing-and-incendiary ,...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945 which involved most of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, notable particularly for his activities between November 10 and December 17, 1942 during the
Battle of StalingradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. It took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943, and is often cited as the turning point of the war in Europe...
. He killed 225 soldiers and officers of the
WehrmachtThe Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe ....
and other
AxisThe Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II...
armies, including 6 enemy
sniperA sniper is a highly trained marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
s.
Prior to November 10, he had already killed 32 Axis soldiers with the standard-issue
Mosin-NagantThe Mosin–Nagant is a bolt-action, internal magazine fed, military rifle used by the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and various other nations....
rifle. Between October 1942 and January 1943, Zaytsev made 242 verified kills.
Zaytsev was nearly killed by an enemy sniper. His military rank at the time was Junior Lieutenant.
Early life and World War II
Zaytsev was born in Yeleninskoye and grew up in the
Ural MountainsThe Ural Mountains are a mountain range that runs roughly north-south through western Russia. They are usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia....
. His surname is based on the Russian word
zayats (заяц) meaning "
hareHares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the Hispid Hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...
". Before serving at Stalingrad, Vasily served in the
Soviet NavyThe Soviet Navy was the naval part of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have been instrumental in any possible Warsaw Pact role in an all-out war with NATO when it would have to stop the naval convoys bringing reinforcements over the Atlantic to the...
as a clerk in Vladivostok but upon reading about the brutality of the fighting in Stalingrad, volunteered for front-line duty arriving in the city on October 21st, 1942 (after the most brutal fighting had already concluded). Zaytsev served in the 1047th Rifle Regiment of the 284th Rifle Division headed by General Nikolai Batyuk. He is notable for having been elevated to a virtual status of hero via the use of propaganda and served as an example and inspiration to other soldiers. There, his skill as a sniper allowed him to establish a snipers' training school in the Metiz factory; it was run by Zaytsev. Zaytsev trained apprentices were nicknamed
zaichata, meaning "leverets" (baby hares).
Antony BeevorAntony James Beevor FRSL is a British historian, educated at Winchester College and Sandhurst. He studied under the famous military historian John Keegan. Beevor is a former officer with the 11th Hussars who served in England and Germany for five years before resigning his commission...
wrote in
StalingradWritten by Antony Beevor, Stalingrad is a narrative history of the epic battle fought in and around the city of Stalingrad during World War II, as well as the events leading up to it and those which occurred after...
that this was the start of the "sniper movement" in the 62nd Army. Conferences were arranged to spread the doctrine of "sniperism" and exchange ideas on technique and principles that were not limited to
marksmanA marksman is a person who is skilled in precision shooting, using projectile weapons, such as with a rifle but most commonly with a sniper rifle, to shoot at small long-range targets...
ship skills. It is estimated that the snipers Zaytsev trained killed more than 3000 enemy soldiers.
Zaytsev took part in the battle for Stalingrad until January 1943, when he suffered an injury to his eyes from a
mortarA mortar is a muzzle-loading indirect fire weapon that fires shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It typically has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber.- Function :...
attack. He was attended to by Professor
FilatovVladimir Petrovich Filatov was a Russian-Ukrainian ophthalmologist and surgeon best known for his development of tissue therapy. He introduced the tube flap grafting method, corneal transplantation and preservation of grafts from cadaver eyes...
, who is credited with restoring his sight. On February 22, 1943 Zaytsev was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. He then returned to the front and finished the war on the Dniestr River with the military rank of
CaptainThe army rank of Captain is a commissioned officer rank historically corresponding to command of a company of soldiers. The rank is also used by some air forces and marine forces. Today a captain is typically either the commander or second-in-command of a company or cavalry troop...
. After the war, Zaytsev managed a
factoryA factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
in
KievKiev or Kyiv ; see also Cities' alternative names), is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press.Kiev is an important...
, and remained in that city until he died in 1991 at the age of 76 just 10 days before the final dissolution of the Soviet Union.
In 2001, a feature length film,
Enemy at the GatesEnemy at the Gates is a 2001 war film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, starring Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes and Ed Harris set during the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II....
, starring
Jude LawDavid Jude Heyworth Law is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...
as Zaytsev, was loosely based on the Battle of Stalingrad, most notably displaying a fictional ongoing rivalry with a Nazi marksman,
Major Erwin KönigErwin König and Heinz Thorvald are names of an apocryphal highly skilled Wehrmacht sniper allegedly killed by the legendary Red Army sniper Vasily Zaytsev during the Battle of Stalingrad....
. Although Zaytsev really took part in the Battle of Stalingrad, the movie was mostly a work of fiction. Although Zaytsev himself indicates that a three-day duel did indeed occur in his own memoirs. Most telling of all is that there is no evidence of a duel being reported on by the Stalingrad Front political department which would have capitalized on its usefulness as propaganda. There is no evidence that any Major Erwin König ever existed, despite the claim made by the Armed Forces Museum of Moscow that they are in possession of his telescopic sight, which remains there to this date.
Commemoration
On January 31, 2006, Vasily Zaytsev was reburied on
Mamayev KurganMamayev Kurgan is a dominant height overlooking the city of Volgograd in Southern Russia. The name in Russian means "tumulus of Mamai"....
with full military honors. Zaytsev's dying wish was to be buried at the monument to the defenders of Stalingrad. His coffin was carried next to a monument where his famous quote is written: "For us there was no land beyond (the) Volga."
Further reading
- Zaitsev, Vassili (2003). Notes of a Sniper. Trans. David Givens, Peter Kornakov, Konstantin Kornakov. Ed. Neil Okrent. Los Angeles: 2826 Press Inc. ISBN 0615121489.
- Beevor, Antony (1998). Stalingrad. London: Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-14-100131-3.
- Robbins, David L. (2000). War of the Rats. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-58135-X.
- The Reader's Digest Illustrated History of World War II (1989). London: Reader's Digest Association Limited. ISBN 0-89577-333-3
External links
Biography of Vasily Zaytsev at WarHeroes.ru
- Zaytsev, Vasily (1981). Notes of a Sniper (in Russian). (ZIP
The ZIP file format is a data compression and archive format. A ZIP file contains one or more files that have been compressed to reduce file size, or stored as-is. The ZIP file format permits a number of compression algorithms, but , the Deflate method continues to be dominant...
). Moscow: Sovremennik.