RED DEATH - The War Memoirs of a Stalin Sniper

On 22 June 1941, as the Wehrmacht launched its assault on the Soviet Union, sweeping aside Russian defences along a front 3,000 kilometres wide, in Odessa, in southern Ukraine, the young Lioudmila — then a history student — decided to leave the university benches and enlist in the Red Army.

In her memoirs, previously unpublished in French, Lioudmila Pavlichenko describes her sometimes difficult beginnings in the army, her training and above all her missions: neutralising officers, counter-sniping, perilous reconnaissance operations, etc. Details abound, the style is brisk and sharp — and above all, nothing is concealed from the reader of this terrible struggle between "prey" and "predator".

Once Odessa had fallen into Axis hands, it was in besieged Sevastopol — the vast citadel established on the shores of the Black Sea — that Pavlichenko continued the fight, distinguishing herself once again behind the scope of her Mosin-Nagant against Romanian and German troops.

Withdrawn from the front in 1942, she who had become the terror of Axis soldiers in Crimea would be the first Soviet citizen to set foot on American soil, during a triumphant tour in honour of Lenin's homeland.

This text constitutes an essential piece for understanding the combat conditions of Russian soldiers, but also the workings of Stalin's propaganda — and the lucidity of certain soldiers on that subject, far removed from the usual clichés.

A terrifying immersion among those legendary soldiers of the shadows, in a world of infinite patience, immense discretion, cold precision and meticulous calculation. A world where the difference between life and death hinges on a few millimetres, a single breath, a bare reflex.