Garry

The guy became a hero when he was made a symbol of fight for vanishing troops in Stalingrad rubbish. It was terrible fight there for every meter of land... especially at the end when Russians were left just 1km strip along the Volga... it got shrink to 300m. Zaitsev has record of more than 200 ememy soldiers including 11 snipers. His battle with german sniper major Kening was considered myth for long time even by many Soviet historians. But today they put major's rifle and his documents in the museum... at day when Zaitsev was reburried.

In real life Zaitsev was never left alone against other snipers. A whole group of snipers guarded him and his flanks. In 1942 he was an important symbol for soldiers who knew that MOST OF THEM will not suvive even few days in Stalingrad. Casualties were very high and people needed some hope to hold. Many soldiers start copying Zaitsev and went sniping.... not all of them successfully. Many did not last long as snipers, while some survived in their hobby and became pretty dangerous snipers. But in overall this movement created such a wave of sniping among Russian troops that Germans has lost around 10,000 soldiers and officers due to precision shots of these amateurs.