Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev (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 1942, he killed 32 Axis soldiers with a standard-issue rifle. Between 10 November 1942 and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 enemy soldiers, including 11 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 “snipers’ duel” between Zaytsev and a Wehrmacht sniper school director, Major Erwin König.
Tomas Fredriksson Photography 