Talk:Snipers of the Soviet Union

Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad article gives the number of kills for Zaitsev as 149. Sources? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benandorsqueaks (talk • contribs)

Women snipers
"Additionally, they found that sniper duties fit women well, since good snipers are patient, careful, deliberate, can avoid hand-to-hand combat, and need higher levels of aerobic conditioning than other troops."

I know the controversy involved here but a patient calm- thinking woman in an excitable situation seems like an oxymoron to me. Women have aggressive personalities as is obvious to how over- reacting they are and how little of a military attitude they display when faced with such situations. Soldiers, which include snipers, need to be accepting, calm, sociable and respectful among other things to be successful. In such situations, women who actually want to be part of such affairs display an opposite mentality. It is controversial and if it offends you, fair enough. But let's not be under an illusion here. The Red Army was so desperate for soldiers, they would take anyone who could stand and aim. If they weren't so ludicrously hard- pressed during the war they would not have even considered involving women in the army. No other nation has been as desperate before and that is why Russia is the only nation ever to have deployed women to fight. As for these claims about women being more suited to shooting and it being proven by successes of the snipers, look at the male snipers, who fared just as well, if not better, such as Zaitsev. The snipers' achievements came from robust, reliable rifles such as the Mosin- Nagant, for long- range use, and from the strategic situation where the germans were thinning and spreading out, due to focus on infantry advances and Russian weather. The Germans, who were focused on stopping the infantry advances, became easy targets for the snipers, who knew the city better and outnumbered the German snipers. Gender had nothing to do with it in this case. There you have it, people. Go ahead and get angry if you want, but that is the matter. Sorry for the offence this may have caused. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AGKain (talk • contribs) 20:53, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Really now? All the attributes are true, but men are also paitent, careful deliberate, able to avoid hand to hand, and can be very fit.... This seems like a shamless plug for a point of bias on basis on sexism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rz350 (talk • contribs)


 * Yes but how many men at the time had the option of doing aerobics? ch 16:14, 13 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Aerobic conditioning is not the same as Aerobics. Imroy 12:59, 17 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, regardless of how much you like this view, it is in fact widely believed in Russia to this day that women are more patient and careful. And certainly less aggressive... To what extent it is a "fact" is of course an empirical question that deserves scientific study (and not "sexism" accusations) but Russians generally held and still hold it to be true. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.24.104.52 (talk) 05:40, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Apparent Anachronism
I had assumed that assault rifles (excepting the STG-44) came after WW2. The explanation for squad level snipers having the same cost effectiveness as ordinary soldiers with assault rifles confuses me. I thought ordinary soldiers of that time carried the same mosin-nagant that the snipers carried, sans the scope. --SpacemanAfrica 21:38, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Article Expansion
Unless it's covered somewhere else, the Soviet surely maintained a sniper program WELL after WW2 and I'm sure it wouldn't be against Wikipedia's guidelines to use this article to cover it.


 * I agree. Additional I think the article should reflect more the development of the soviet snipers. things like doctrine, tactics, weapons and so on don't fall from the sky. they develop over time. i know the soviet era is over, but the article presents it all as it was already developed to its final stage when it was introduced. which is imho not correct. Minkus (talk) 21:52, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Sniper at squad or platoon level ?
I have extended the article with a source that places the soviet sniper at the platoon level. This is in accordance with the article on the Dragunov, but in apparent contrast to statements in the Soviet sniper article. Proposals for resolving this are welcome. (The platoon level sniper would still have to be placed in one of the squads of the platoon, perhaps this is part of the explanation). Lklundin 16:27, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Information not relevant.
Information regarding pre- or post-Soviet Russian doctrine or technology is not relevant. The article is titled Soviet sniper, not Russian sniper. MVMosin 04:09, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Mikhail Surkov
Removed him. Google books search suggests he existed but no support for 702 kills claim.©Geni 17:43, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

In Popular Culture
I think it'd be more accurate to say the movie took the title from the book--the story in the movie is much closer to the War of the Rats than to the historical non-fiction book Enemy At the Gates which is about the entire Stalingrad battle72.135.16.193 (talk) 20:32, 23 September 2011

tania chernova, an actual sniper (http://tania420.tripod.com/akataniachernova/id1.html), plays an important role in war of the rats and the movie enemy at the gates.(https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/TANIA-CHERNOVA-Stalingrad-Deadly-Battle-of-WWII)(http://herostruestory.blogspot.com/) (Vasili Chuikov, The Battle for Stalingrad (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964 cited in https://www.ucumberlands.edu/academics/history/files/vol16/Vol16.pdf)64.53.191.77 (talk) 22:20, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

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