He had attained the rank of chief petty officer in the Navy and was assigned the rank of senior warrant officer upon transfer to the army. Zaitsev, like many of his comrades, volunteered for transfer to the front line. Zaitsev was serving in the Soviet Navy as a clerk in Vladivostok when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Zaitsev, left, in Stalingrad, December 1942 After studying at military school, he was appointed head of the finance department of the Pacific Fleet in Transfiguration Bay. He also studied accounting.įrom 1937, Zaitsev served in the Pacific Fleet, where he was clerk of the artillery department. In 1930, Zaitsev graduated from construction college in the city of Magnitogorsk, where he received the speciality of fitter. He brought home his first trophy at the age of 12, a wolf that he killed with a single bullet from his first personal gun (given to him by his grandfather), a single-shot 20 gauge shotgun. Zaitsev was born in Yeleninskoye, Orenburg Governorate in a peasant family of Russian ethnicity and grew up in the Ural Mountains, where he learned marksmanship by hunting deer and wolves with his grandfather and older brother. Robbins's 1999 historical novel War of the Rats. His life and military career have been the subject of several books and films: his exploits, as detailed in William Craig's 1973 book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad, served as the story for the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates, with Jude Law portraying Zaitsev. Zaitsev became a celebrated figure during the war and later a Hero of the Soviet Union, and he remains lauded for his skills as a sniper. Between 10 October 1942 and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 enemy soldiers.

Between 22 September 1942 and 19 October 1942, he killed 40 enemy soldiers.

Rabbit sniper 5