Nina Petrova: The only grandmother-sniper in WWII
Nina Petrova was 48 years old when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, far beyond the age of conscription. Yet Nina, who’d raised her daughter on her own and was now a grandmother, clearly considered age as insignificant when it came to combat. She joined the Red Army as a sniper of the 284th Infantry Regiment and, with years of working as a shooting instructor as well as her time in combat during the 1939 Soviet-Finnish War, she soon became a commander.
Looking back, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when Nina decided to train as a sniper. After finishing school, she took a number of desk jobs including typist, librarian and accountant, but her hobbies revealed her great love of physical activity—horseback riding, biking, swimming, hockey, basketball and speedskating. Then came the Leningrad sniper training camp when her daughter was 17, in 1934, where she won first place in a shooting competition. Not surprisingly, she became a shooting instructor and taught 102 future sharpshooters.
When the Great Patriotic War began (the Soviet name for WWII), Nina not only immersed herself in combat as a sniper, she continued to train 500 snipers while she was on the front! For her extraordinary achievements, she received two momentous awards, but her age is what caught the eye of General Ivan Fedyuninsky: “The award list indicated that Petrova was 52 years old. I did not want to believe my eyes: is she more than fifty years old?”
In ‘War History Online’ (Oct. 2, 2018), Ruslan Budnik takes a close look at Nina’s prowess as a sniper : “On January 16, 1944, near the village of Zarudiny, Nina destroyed two German signalmen. When her position was discovered, she successfully changed her position under heavy fire and killed another three German soldiers….In February 1945, Nina was in the 2nd Belorussian Front. She took part in battles for the city of Elbing, covering the attacking infantry with sniper fire and suppressing German firing points. In these battles, Nina killed 32 German soldiers, bringing her total score to 100 killed.”
Nina Petrova had a tally of 112 by the end of WWII; she was 51 years old.
Nina went on to kill 22 more Germans, but her growing exhaustion is evident in the letter she wrote to her daughter:
My dear, dear daughter! I am tired of fighting, baby, because it is already the fourth year at the front. Would rather end this damned war and return home. How I want to hug you, kiss my dear granddaughter! Maybe we will live to see this happy day…”
Sadly, Nina did not live to hug her granddaughter. On May 1, 1945, she was a passenger in a car that crashed in Nazi-occupied Poland. Because of poor visibility, the driver lost control and the car drove off a bridge. Nina died immediately, with a final tally of 122 German soldiers. She was 51 years old.
