Most don’t know this WWII heroine

But there’s one individual from outside our shores who bears mentioning in the context of female front-line fighters, something not all of the warring countries employed.

This woman didn’t fight for the United States, however. She fought for the Soviet Union.

She employed her important skills during the Soviets’ desperate struggle for survival against Nazi Germany on the horrific Eastern Front (it is estimated by historians that 80% of all World War II deaths occurred on the Eastern Front, a vast cauldron of carnage and destruction) that embraced thousands of square miles and countless cities, towns and villages.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a sniper, one of the best in the Russian army at that time. According to most available reports, she was a bona fide crack shot and responsible for 309 verified enemy kills. She became a legend. Her German foes reportedly referred to her as “Lady Death.” It was a grim moniker of grudging respect, not to mention outright fear.

The Germans, according to historical accounts, tried to recruit her to their side, so prized was her deadly expertise in that conflict. They failed.

With the Soviet Union facing an existential threat (after partnering with the Nazis to cynically divide Poland in 1939 in a marriage made in hell), she, like tens of thousands of other female warriors, fought on the front lines (and in the air) for Mother Russia.

The Soviets lost an estimated 27 million people (if not many more), both military and civilian, during the titanic four-year war against the Germans and the countries that fought with them (not always willingly, by the way) from 1941 to 1945.

LET’S MAKE IT A CLEAN SWEEP: Let’s stop nibbling around the edges. Let’s go all the way. Democrats who dominate just about every lever of statewide power in California are seeking to eliminate five GOP seats in Congress to counter a stark, partisan gerrymander move in Texas that would benefit Republicans there. The five positions in the Golden State would be more than half of the paltry nine congressional seats currently held by Republicans. Why stop with cutting out those five spots in the House of Representatives? Make it a clean sweep. Make the state a blatant one-party monopoly where group-think is standard operating procedure, no differing views even considered or, heaven forbid, allowed. Go for the gold, go for all nine. Power to the people! Or at least some of them.

WORLD DEBT IS STAGGERING: You thought your credit card was out of financial alignment as you tally your weekly expenses. Maybe it is. But consider the following macro-economic data point and mull it over as you sip your morning soy latte, hold the Equal: The nations of the world, as a whole, have accumulated $102 trillion of government debt — and counting every second of every day on the calendar now and far into the future. The United States and China, as a painfully profligate pair, have amassed more than half of that massive figure. Maybe your fiscal condition, though less than terrific, isn’t quite so bad after all. Have a nice day.

A VERY PERSONAL THANK YOU: This is a shout-out to the fine folks at Stanford Hospital who cared for my spouse of 57 summers recently. She required some surgical repairs after a nasty fall. Major kudos to the doctors, nurses, radiologists, technicians, orderlies, medical students, et al. A difficult experience but one made more tolerable by the dedicated Stanford people.