Background
Maria Polivanova was born on 24 October 1922 in a village in the Tula Region, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. She was born in a working-class family.
USSR
A portrait of female Soviet snipers Natalya Kovshova and Maria Polivanova who fought on the Eastern Front of World War II.
Maria Polivanova was born on 24 October 1922 in a village in the Tula Region, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. She was born in a working-class family.
Maria Polivanova attended secondary school in Moscow.
Maria Polivanova joined the Red Army in June 1941 after the start of the Second World War. She was trained to become a sniper. In October 1941, she was put in the 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division, a Narodnoe Opolcheniye group to defend Moscow from German bombing attacks. In January 1942 she was transferred to the 528th Rifle Regiment on the Northwestern Front and received training at the Central Women's Sniper Training School. Maria fought with her friend Natalya Kovshova. Both Polivanova and Kovshova established themselves as skilled snipers and respected instructors in the battalion.
On 14 August 1942, Polivanova and Kovshova were committed to the fighting near the village of Sutoki-Byakovo in the Novgorod Oblast. The German forces killed all of her regiment, leaving only Kovshova and Polivanova who were both wounded. Seeing capture as a non-option Kovshova decided to pull the pin of her grenade, and wait to blow the German soldiers up when they reached the trench. When the Germans finally reached the trench, Kovshova detonated the grenades, killing herself, Polivanova and many German soldiers.