Alexandra Alexandrovna Avgusta
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Dark brown
Light
1915
1944
Saratov, Russian Empire
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Infected by the Slime
Marksman
Sergeant
- Siege of Odessa
- Siege of Sevastopol
- Battle of Stalingrad
- Yevgeniya Semenova (mother)
- Alexander Avgust (father)
Valentina Borisova
- Lyudmila Pavlichenko
- Vasily Zaitsev
Nicholas Springer
Alexandra Alexandrovna Avgusta (Russian: Александра Александровна Августа; 1915–1944) was a Soviet marksman who fought in World War II alongside Valentina Borisova. Having sniped dozens of Axis troops, she held the rank of sergeant, and was venerated within her company. The German Army captured her and Valentina during the battle of Stalingrad, transferring them to a prisoner of war camp. When the camp had a yellow lung outbreak, the two escaped, but were later infected.
Biography
Early Life
Alexandra Avgusta was born in Saratov, Russia in 1915. Her father was Alexander Avgust and her mother Yevgeniya Semenova, one working in a factory and the other in her home. Though his long working hours burned him out, Alexander often sacrificed his sleep to spend as much time with his wife and child as possible. In 1917, he volunteered to join the Red Army, believing that overthrowing the Tsarist regime would save his family and millions of others from squalor. In 1919, he was fatally wounded, a letter notifying Yevgeniya of his death. Intense fighting in Saratov had forced Alexandra and her mother out of their home, exposing them to cold, disease, and starvation. They managed to survive and moved into an apartment in the early 1920s.
The limited food access during the Russian Civil War severely harmed Alexandra’s brain development. She struggled to communicate, learn, and remember, giving her low grades in kindergarten and primary school. Most of her schoolmates had the same issues, likewise due to the civil war. Instead of written or spoken language, they socialized through their own means of communication, which was how, in 1925, Alexandra met Valentina Borisova. The two girls helped each other through their disabilities, cultivating an interdependent friendship. After graduating high school in 1933, Alexandra and Valentina entered Saratov State University to study history and medicine respectively. In 1938, the former obtained her diploma. Valentina, meanwhile, continued to study, marking the first time she did not see Alexandra every week. They kept in touch through mail and telephone until Valentina graduated in 1939.
Valentina had been the only close friend of Alexandra as well as the person who had helped her the most through childhood and adolescence. Subsequently, Alexandra began to imagine herself in a romance with Valentina, but felt ashamed of it and preferred to repress her thoughts. Whether it meant dating her best friend or not, Alexandra wanted to share a home with her; Valentina felt the same way. The year of their graduation, they bought a small yet comfortable household in Saratov. In 1940, Alexandra became a history teacher at a children’s school, working in the afternoon. She treated her students compassionately, attempting to adapt her teaching methods to their individual liking. Once dismissed, she spent the evening as a housekeeper, and Valentina worked in a hospital until it was almost midnight. They reserved their free time for cooking dinner and sleeping.
World War II
Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in July 1941. Having learned about the hardships of war from her mother, Alexandra refused to enlist. In contrast, her best friend did it right away, specifically for the Soviet Naval Infantry. The thought of losing Valentina pressured Alexandra into following a military career herself. The two conducted basic training for a few weeks, learning how to coordinate in battle, use firearms, and fight enemies hand to hand. At one point, Alexandra told her instructor that she wanted a role that did not put her in much danger, but would still be deadly. He asked about her accuracy with rifles, to which she said it needed improvement. He suggested she join a sniping school. Alexandra liked the idea, albeit she worried that she would be separated from Valentina, who wanted to be a medic.
In August, Alexandra and Valentina, assigned to the 25th Rifle Division, were sent to defend Odessa. Throughout the two-month siege of the city, Alexandra tried to snipe on her own. She took up concealed positions wherever her squad moved and targeted stray Germans and Romanians. A few dozen of them fell to her bullets, but her accuracy remained limited. A young private named Pavel Konstantinov volunteered to be her spotter, and through him, her kill count surpassed 30. He was ultimately shot dead and Alexandra narrowly avoided sharing his fate. Her squadmates were nonetheless very respectful of her, to the point they introduced Alexandra to Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a sniper responsible for over a hundred Axis deaths in the siege. The two snipers had a friendly conversation upon meeting, Lyudmila planning to teach Alexandra about sniping the next time they met. On October 15th, the 25th Rifle Division was evacuated to Sevastopol. As they prepared for the attack on the Crimean city, Alexandra excitedly revealed her encounter with Lyudmila to Valentina. Her blonde friend did not initially believe her.