Biography: Eleanor Roosevelt and Lyudmila Palvichenko

Eleanor Roosevelt

October 11, 1884

Eleanor is born in New York City. Her father, Elliott Roosevelt, was President Theodore Roosevelt's younger brother and her mother, Anna Hall, was a socialite.

1892-1894

Her mother and father die. Eleanor goes to live with her grandmother.

1902

At age 18, Eleanor returns to New York. She gets involved in social service work, joins the Junior League and teaches at the Rivington Street Settlement House

1933

Franklin Delano Roosevelt wins the presidency, and Eleanor becomes the first lady

1939

Eleanor resigns for the Daughters of the American Revolution because they don't allow Marion Anderson, an African American singer, to perform

1942

Eleanor hosts an International Student Assembly, and Lyudmila Palvichenko arrives, accompanied by two other "students"

Lyudmila Palvichenko

1916

Lydumila was born in Belaya Tserkov, in a large Ukrainian city south of Kiev.

1930

At age 14, she enrolls in sharpshooter class and earns her Voroshilov Sharpshooter Badge.

1932

The next year, Palvichenko becomes unexpectedly pregnant and marries the significantly older Alexei Pavlichenko. Their relationship quickly sours, and the subsequent divorce leaves Palvichenko disillusioned. As she goes to work in an Arsenal factory, her mother cares for Lyudmila's son.

1937

Pavlichenko attends Kiev University, where she studies history and competes on their track team

1941

Following Operation Barbarossa, Palvichenko enlists. She shows up to the recruitment office wearing, like most young volunteers, her best: a nice dress with and white high heeled sandals. When the enlistment officer tries to direct her into being a nurse, she shows him her sharpshooting certificate. She joins the 54th Stepan Razin Rifle Regiment.

July 1941

Pavlichenko gets her first kill in as German the siege of Odessa (in Southwest Ukraine) begins

May 1942

Pavlichenko has recorded 257 kills, which garnered her another promotion to lieutenant. As she receives the honors for her total, Lyudmila replies "I'll get more."

July 1942

After fleeing to Sevastopol, Pavlichenko sustains more injuries to her head.

August 1942

Pavlichenko travels to Moscow, where Stalin invites her, along with two other snipers, to travel to the United States for Eleanor's International Student Assembly. The Nazis had just begun their Stalingrad offensive, and the Soviets wanted to persuade their allies to open the war on the Western front. Stalin provides Palvencheko with an English-Russian dictionary.