Was Call of Duty‘s Polina Petrova a Real WW2 Soldier?

The short answer is no – Polina Petrova is a fictional character in Call of Duty: Vanguard. However, she is largely inspired by the incredible true story of Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

As a passionate gamer and creator myself, the heroic tale of Pavlichenko and the real female Soviet snipers of WW2 is one that deserves more attention from the gaming community. In this article, I‘ll share some fascinating history that shaped the Polina Petrova character many of us enjoy playing.

Lady Death: The Real Lyudmila Pavlichenko of WW2

Polina Petrova is clearly modeled after famed Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who earned the nickname "Lady Death" from the Germans for her lethality. With 309 confirmed kills during WW2, Pavlichenko is regarded as one of the deadliest snipers in military history – not just among women but all snipers.

Pavlichenko was an expert in fieldcraft – the military skills of camouflage, stealth, and concealment. Her talent for remaining unseen while lining up the perfect kill shot made her devastatingly effective.

After seeing Pavlichenko in news reels, Woody Guthrie even wrote a song titled "Miss Pavlichenko" in tribute to her battlefield prowess.

Over 2000 Female Soviet Snipers Served in WW2

While Pavlichenko was the most famous, she was far from the only woman to serve as a Soviet sniper. In total, over 2000 women enrolled as snipers after Germany‘s invasion, according to records from Russia‘s Ministry of Defense.

Sniping offered Soviet women an opportunity to volunteer for active combat duty. About 500 female snipers survived the war. Their specialized skills were crucial in defending cities like Leningrad and Stalingrad from German attack.

Why Were Female Snipers So Feared?

Accounts from German soldiers indicate that women snipers like Pavlichenko provoked a unique psychological terror. The Germans were unprepared to face female combatants and saw them as unnatural or evil harbingers of death.

As one German officer despairingly wrote:

"We will never succeed against her. She is fighting on her own land, and knows every inch of the terrain. Besides, we are constantly mistaken about her location and instead of hunting, are ourselves being hunted."

With her keen vision and stealth, Pavlichenko could remain hidden and strike suddenly like a ghostly reaper. This psychological impact amplified the actual lethality of female snipers.

Pavlichenko‘s Shooting Prowess Was Unmatched

While exact counts are uncertain, Pavlichenko‘s confirmed tally of 309 enemy kills likely makes her the deadliest female sniper in recorded military history.

Remarkably, she didn‘t even use a traditional Russian sniper rifle, but instead relied on the lighter semi-automatic Tokarev SVT-40. This made her even harder to pin down.

Here‘s a breakdown of Pavlichenko‘s impressive sniping statistics from the war:

Pavlichenko‘s superhuman sniping eventually caught up with her – she was wounded multiple times by mortar shrapnel and gunfire. But she survived the war to become a Soviet celebrity.

Polina Petrova vs The Real Lady Death

As we can see, the real Lyudmila Pavlichenko and her nightmarish talents likely served as the inspiration for the fictional Polina Petrova in the Call of Duty series.

But Petrova herself is not based on any single female sniper from history. She instead represents the combined war achievements of Pavlichenko and women like Nina Lobkovskaya, Ziba Ganiyeva, and Aliya Moldagulova.

These nearly supernatural Soviet "witches" terrified the German invaders not just through their skills, but through their ability to break expectations of female behavior. And that legacy now lives on through characters like Polina!

So while Petrova may not have been a real WW2 soldier, the woman she‘s based on, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, most certainly inflicted incredible damage with her rifle scope trained on the Nazis. Her story deserves to be told for generations and makes me proud to play as a character inspired by her today!