№ 280/кор. “To the 75th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945” series. 100th anniversary of the birth of V. Zaitsev (1915–1991), sniper, Hero of the Battle of Stalingrad

To the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945, FSUE PTC “Marka” presents a new long-term series of envelopes with original stamps dedicated to legendary heroes of the Great Patriotic War, who showed valor and defiance of death in fights against the Nazi invaders.

Vasily Zaytsev was a sniper of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front, a Hero of the Soviet Union (1943).

He was born in the village of Yelino, now Agapovsky District of the Chelyabinsk Oblast on 23 March 1915. He graduated from the civil engineering college in Magnitogorsk and served in the Navy since 1936.

When the Great Patriotic War broke out, Zaytsev was the Head of the Finance Department in the Navy Pacific Fleet on the Preobrazheniye Bay. In the middle of 1942, he succeeded to be transferred from Vladivostok to Stalingrad, in the heat of the battle for the city.

Between 10 November and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and other Axis armies, including 11 enemy snipers.

Vasily Zaytsev taught marksmanship to young soldiers while on the frontline. He wrote to manuals for snipers and created a hunting tactic known as the “sixes”, which is still in use today. He worked as a Director of the Kyiv Machine-Building Factory.

Vasily Zaytsev is a freeman of Volgograd Hero City; he was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class and many medals.

The envelope with an original features an emblem of the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945; the main image depicts a portrait of Vasily Zaytsev with a sniper rifle in his hands and the Gold Star Medal.