Over 800,000 women served in the Soviet armed forces in World War II, mostly as medics and nurses, which is over 3 percent of total personnel; nearly 200,000 of them were decorated. 89 of them eventually received the Soviet Union’s highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union, they served as pilots, snipers, machine gunners, tank crew members and partisans, as well as in auxiliary roles. Few of these women, however, were promoted to officers.
The Soviets were actually pretty far ahead in doing away with sex bias in their armed forces.
This is a cool photo, but I cannot stand the idea of "rating" snipers/soldiers based their body count. Number of kills should be a solemn reminder of the cost of freedom, not a batting average.
Edit: I'm not referring to any sort of performance rating given to snipers within the military to evaluate their effectiveness. I'm referring to the idea of the public celebrating "quantity of kills" only, versus celebrating people who did whatever was necessary in the name of freedom, including killing AND all the other various ways a soldier can help win a war.
I have just as much respect for the soldier who helpes treat a wounded Afghan civilian, as I do for the one who killed X number of bad guys.
coxeta on August 15th, 2017 at 01:32 UTC »
First row – Guard Staff Sergeant, VN Stepanov: 20 kills, Guard Sgt JP Belousov: 80 kills, Guard Sgt AE Vinogradov: 83 kills.
Second row – Guard Lieutenant EK Zhibovskaya: 24 kills, Guard Sgt KF Marinkin: 79 kills, Guard Sgt OS Marenkina: 70 kills.
Third row – Guard Lieutenant NP Belobrova: 70 kills, Lieutenant N. Lobkovsky: 89 kills, Guard Lieutenant VI Artamonov: 89 kills, Guard Staff Sergeant MG Zubchenko: 83 kills.
Forth row – Guard Sergeant, NP Obukhov: 64 kills, Guard Sergeant, AR Belyakov 24 kills.
Total number of confirmed kills: 775. Photo taken in Germany, May 4, 1945.
Source
TooShiftyForYou on August 15th, 2017 at 02:33 UTC »
Over 800,000 women served in the Soviet armed forces in World War II, mostly as medics and nurses, which is over 3 percent of total personnel; nearly 200,000 of them were decorated. 89 of them eventually received the Soviet Union’s highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union, they served as pilots, snipers, machine gunners, tank crew members and partisans, as well as in auxiliary roles. Few of these women, however, were promoted to officers.
The Soviets were actually pretty far ahead in doing away with sex bias in their armed forces.
UndercoverFBIAgent9 on August 15th, 2017 at 10:31 UTC »
This is a cool photo, but I cannot stand the idea of "rating" snipers/soldiers based their body count. Number of kills should be a solemn reminder of the cost of freedom, not a batting average.
Edit: I'm not referring to any sort of performance rating given to snipers within the military to evaluate their effectiveness. I'm referring to the idea of the public celebrating "quantity of kills" only, versus celebrating people who did whatever was necessary in the name of freedom, including killing AND all the other various ways a soldier can help win a war.
I have just as much respect for the soldier who helpes treat a wounded Afghan civilian, as I do for the one who killed X number of bad guys.