Vassili Zaitsev
| Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev | |
|---|---|
Zaytsev in December 1942
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| Native name | Василий Григорьевич Зайцев |
| Nickname(s) | Vasya |
| Born |
23 March 1915 Yeleninskoye, Orenburg Governorate, Russian Empire (now Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russian Federation) |
| Died | 15 December 1991 (aged 76) Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Buried at | Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd, Russia |
| Allegiance |
 Soviet Union
|
| Years of service | 1937–1945 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |
             
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Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev (Russian: Васи́лий Григо́рьевич За́йцев; IPA: [vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈzajtsɨf]; 23 March 1915 – 15 December 1991) was a Soviet sniper and a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II. Prior to 10 November, he killed 32 Axis soldiers with the standard-issue Mosin–Nagant rifle (effective range of 900 metres or 985 yards). Between 10 November 1942 and 17 December 1943, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and other Axis armies, including 11 enemy snipers.
A feature-length film, Enemy at the Gates (2001), starring Jude Law as Zaytsev, was based on part of William Craig's non-fiction book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad (1973), which includes a "sniper's duel" between Zaytsev and a Wehrmacht sniper school director, Major Erwin König.
Zaytsev 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. He brought home his first trophy at the age of 12: a wolf that he shot with a single bullet from his first personal rifle, a large single-shot Berdan, which at the time he was barely able to carry on his back.
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