The Angel of Death...

I've remarked before in this inauspicious little blog that those who don't pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it.  Russia's pariah dictator Putin might want to pay attention to that old bit of advice...

Have you ever heard of the "Angel of Death?"  No?  Well, I'm guessing Mr. Putin has.  That's because the woman who earned that fearsome moniker was Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko.  She was a fourth-year university student in Kyiv when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.  She immediately joined the Army and insisted upon the infantry.  Even though she was already a trained nurse, she wished to employ her citizen marksmanship training in support of her country.  She'd been a sharpshooter all her life, but soon graduated to becoming a sniper.  And not just any sniper.  Possibly the most famous sniper in the world.

She was from Odesa.  That's in Ukraine.  Ukraine was a free country until gobbled up by the U.S.S.R.  But she fought for it anyway.  And boy was she good with a rifle.  She's credited with 309 confirmed kills.  And likely twice that number, if truth be told.  A full 37 of those confirmed kills were enemy German snipers!  She became so famous she was pulled from the front lines and sent abroad to raise funds for the war.  Think about that for a minute: a Russian sniper - a Ukrainian sniper - toured Canada and the U.S. of A. to raise money for their war.  She was given a medal by Eleanor Roosevelt and a shiny new Colt pistol as a part of our honorarium.

She went home, finished her studies after the war, became an army major, and lectured against authoritarianism until the end of her life.  

I wonder if Mr. Putin is growing his own "Angel of Death" with his illegal invasion of a sovereign country?  Or maybe several of them.  After all, Putin's trying to take Odesa, Lyudmila's home town.  And Ukraine is fighting back, for it's life, against Russian invasion.

Is this some major-league irony, or what?

This little history lesson has been brought to you by The Chuckmeister.  We'd better be happy we have an ocean on either side of us, or we just might have to grow our own "Angels" some day as well...