The sniper who reached Berlin after his death

Vasily Golosov was born in 1911 in Belev, near Tula, into a civil officer’s family, and was a worker and supply manager. But, when he got to the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, he became a sniper.

In August 1942, when capturing a bridgehead on the Don, private Golosov drew the attention of the commanders by his accurate shooting. From that moment, he not only began to “work” as a sniper, but also taught his skill to other soldiers.

During the battles, Golosov received a head injury, but soon returned to active duty. Personally, he eliminated 422 Nazis. Besides, he personally trained more than 170 professional snipers. On August 16, 1943, during the fighting in Kharkov Region, he was killed by a shell fragment. On October 26, 1943 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

An afterlife in a poster

Soviet graphic artist Leonid Golovanov was conscripted into the Red Army as a mature man, aged 38, with the rank of lieutenant – and began working on the front line as a war artist. The most popular genre in the early years of the war was the propaganda poster.

A master of the pencil, Golovanov quickly sketched images of Soviet soldiers in an album, in order to use them later in his works. Among the sketches were portraits of the sniper Golosov – during his lifetime, he was very well known among the troops of the whole Red Army and Golovanov met him.

MORE: 15 most famous Soviet posters of the Great Patriotic War

The sniper first appeared on the poster in 1944. There he is, smiling while pulling up his boot, with his army overcoat in a roll over his shoulder. The soldier is clearly on a long march, that lasted through the winter months. In the background, Soviet military convoys are marching westward – the poster is titled ‘Let’s reach Berlin!’

But, the generalized image of the sniper Golosov is much better known in the “victory” poster of 1945, ‘Glory to the Red Army!’, also known as ‘Made It!’ or simply ‘Merry Soldier’. Behind the right shoulder of the Red Army soldier on the wall, you can see that very first poster.

Surprisingly, artist Golovanov created another poster in 1962 – ‘And in Labor We Win!’, in which he “aged” the well-known image of the sniper.