While the U.S. was getting smacked around in the Pacific, Pavlichenko was involved in the defense of Sevastopol. In May 1942, she was cited by the U.S.S.R.'s War Council of the Southern Red Army for killing 257 of the enemy. By the end of the war, she'd racked up 309 kills. (That's Eleanor Roosevelt she's standing next to.) Woody Guthrie even sang a song about her -- "Miss Pavlichenko" -- that you can listen to in Spotify.
I guess we've still got a ways to before we can catch up with 1940s communism.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Women in the combat arms branches
When the Pentagon lifted the ground combat unit ban on women earlier this year, I thought hey! we're doing pretty well.
Then I read the Smithsonian Magazine article about Lyudmila Pavlichenko -- a Soviet sniper during World War II.
While the U.S. was getting smacked around in the Pacific, Pavlichenko was involved in the defense of Sevastopol. In May 1942, she was cited by the U.S.S.R.'s War Council of the Southern Red Army for killing 257 of the enemy. By the end of the war, she'd racked up 309 kills. (That's Eleanor Roosevelt she's standing next to.) Woody Guthrie even sang a song about her -- "Miss Pavlichenko" -- that you can listen to in Spotify.
I guess we've still got a ways to before we can catch up with 1940s communism.
While the U.S. was getting smacked around in the Pacific, Pavlichenko was involved in the defense of Sevastopol. In May 1942, she was cited by the U.S.S.R.'s War Council of the Southern Red Army for killing 257 of the enemy. By the end of the war, she'd racked up 309 kills. (That's Eleanor Roosevelt she's standing next to.) Woody Guthrie even sang a song about her -- "Miss Pavlichenko" -- that you can listen to in Spotify.
I guess we've still got a ways to before we can catch up with 1940s communism.
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1 comment:
I seriously hope we're not trying to catch up to communism in any form.
If a woman (a particular individual, not the female gender as a whole) can equal or surpass her peers, great! But I worry that standards (physical endurance and whatever else) will be lowered so that women can "fairly compete" with men. Dumber things have happened.
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