Polina Petrova

Lieutenant Polina Borisovna Petrova (Russian: Полина Борисовна Петрова), also known as Lady Nightingale, is one of the main protagonists of the 2021 video game Call of Duty: Vanguard, and a playable operative in Call of Duty: Warzone.
She is a Red Army sniper who was a victim of the Nazis invasion of Stalingrad, and became a dreaded soldier that inspired the Soviets to take back the city. Focusing her life to eliminate the Third Reich from the world, Polina would be recruited into Task Force Vanguard for her talent, and was tasked to stop "Project Phoenix" and General Hermann Freisinger.
She is voiced by Laura Bailey, who also voiced Lust in 2003s Full Metal Alchemist, Rayne in the BloodRayne series, Serana in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Helena Harper in Resident Evil 6, Abigail Walker in the inFamous series, Fiona in Tales from the Borderlands, Kait Diaz in the Gears of War series, Nadine Ross in the Uncharted series, Catwoman in Telltale's Batman series, Supergirl in Injustice 2, and Mary Jane Watson in Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man series.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Polina Borisovna Petrova was born on November 13th, 1917, in Tsaritsyn (known as Stalingrad during the 1920s-1960s), Russia to Boris Petrov an an unnamed mother, and is the older sister to Misha Petrov. Polina would have a happy childhood with her family, and learned how to shoot when going hunting with her father and brother. When the Second World War started, Polina decided to join the Red Army to fight against the Nazis, but was instead assigned to be a medical officer in the Medical Support Battalion. While going through her medical training, Polina assisted Misha as he had become a member of the Soviet Partisans since he wasn't fit for the military.
===Invasion of Stalingrad===
In June of 1941, Polina was preparing to go the medical corps to be assigned her duties after having a conversation with her father, but had to bring Misha the molotov's needed for the Soviet Partisans. Seeing that Misha had made her late, Polina decided to take a detour by climbing the rooftops and passing several officers after the way was blocked. Before she could tend to the wounded in the tents, the Nazis invaded Stalingrad by bombing the city, and Petrova attempted to return home before knocked unconscious by falling debris. Later that night, she regained consciousness and managed to return home, only finding her father's rifle there and decided to search for him and Misha. Outside the window, Petrova saw her father and group of civilians being held in line to be executed by the Nazis, and she decided take action by eliminating the soldiers.
Successful in killing the Nazis, Polina discovered her mortally wounded father, who told his daughter that she and Misha will have to look out to each other. After saying goodbye to her father, Petrova continued to search for her brother, and managed to rescue him and Soviet recruits that were being held hostage by the Nazis. She then informed Misha of their father's passing, and assisted him and the Partisans in escaping from Stalingrad. Following the invasion, Polina vowed to eliminate the Third Reich, and became a symbol of hope to Russia since she continued to fight in Stalingrad. She became a dreaded sharpshooter by the nickname "Lady Nightingale" since she killed countless members of the Third Reich, and became a wanted woman that have posters hanged around the city. Despite being hailed a hero by fellow countrymen, Petrova was only focused on getting revenge on the Nazis for causing the death of her father and destroying her home.
===Hunting Leo Steiner===
A year later, Polina continued her search for Leo Steiner, a Nazi general who commanded the invasion of Stalingrad and was still in the city. While patrolling outside the city with her brother, the two were attacked by Nazi soldiers, enemy snipers and the Waffen-SS's elite, Jagermorders. While pursuing Steiner, Misha was wounded by a sniper, and Polina attempted to escape with him from the enemy forces. Misha ordered Polina to leave as he held them off with a grenade, and a reluctant Petrova agreed and continued her pursuit of the general. After dealing with Steiner's men, Polina mortally wounded the general, who informed her that his superior, Hermann Freisinger, would continue what they started. She then killed the general by throwing him off the building, which inspired the Red Army to take back Stalingrad from the Nazis.
Despite killing Steiner, Polina saw that Freisinger was involved with what happened to her people, and decided to continue her hunt for the general. While continuing her fight against the Third Reich, Petrova's reputation became well known by the Allied Powers, especially the Special Operations Executive. SOE captain Carver Butcher would start recruiting the best soldiers from different factions into Task Force Vanguard, a unit made to discover what "Project Phoenix" was. Alongside Arthur Kingsley, Richard Webb, Wade Jackson, Lucas Riggs and Novak, Polina was recruited by Butcher, who saw her sharpshooting and relentlessly as a key factor in completing their mission.
===Call of Duty: Vanguard===
Traveling to Hamburg, the team hijack a train to make to a military base to enter a submarine where they can find what "Project Phoenix" is. Though the group manage to make it to the submarine, they are captured by General Freisinger, who interrogates Kingsley before killing Novak with his chair. The group are then imprisoned and interrogated separately by Jannick Richter, who is tasked by Freisinger with finding out what they know. Polina is the second to be interrogated by Richter, telling him of the invasion of Stalingrad and General Steiner, but refusing to give him information. Following her interrogation, the group would learn that Wade was alive after his abandonment, and would witness Webb be killed by Richter in retaliation for lying about Wade's status.
Upon Wade's return, Polina and Riggs continue to distrust him due to abandoning them, but Kingsley reaffirms that Jackson can be trusted by explaining his past with the 93rd Infantry Division. Despite hearing of his story, Polina still refused to trust due to his previous actions in Hamburg, but agreed to work with the team to escape and stop Freisinger, showing her allies that she still had her knife on her. Seeing an opportunity, Kingsley devised a plan to escape by having Riggs falsely agree to reveal information to Richter. The plan went into fruition, and the group escaped after Kingsley personally wounded Richter to avenge Webb, but Polina retrieved her knife from Jannick's body. Riggs informed the team that Richter was able to figure out that Project Phoenix was a coup by Freisinger to overthrow Adolf Hitler to start his Fourth Reich, but was able to continue with his plan upon Hitler's death.
Seeing that Freisinger was planning on having his Fourth Reich go underground and escape via a plane, Petrova and the team worked together to stop his plans. The group capture him during his attempt to escape at the airfield, and when the general speaks of being given a life of luxury for cooperating with the Allies, but Petrova decided to have him be executed instead. Polina or Kingsley then killed the general by burning him alive and escaping from the airfield with Wade flying a plane. The group then opened a crate that carried documents of the Nazis plans to commit covert operations across the world, speaking of Project Aggregat, Project Nova and Project Aether. Seeing that their jobs weren't done, the team decided to stop the Nazis by following up on Project Aggregat to prevent a secret V-2 rocket from being deployed.
===Call of Duty: Warzone===
Polina appears as a playable operative in Warzone, being the leader of the multiplayer faction and special operations group, Task Force Shadow. Before Vanguard was announced, Polina would appear in Warzone in the victory screen, killing the winning player when they were ascending the rope to exfil.
==Quotes==
==Gallery==
Polina-Warzone.jpg|Polina's original appearance in Warzone's victory cinematic.
Vanguard-Phoenix.jpg|Polina with her team traveling to Hamburg.
Vanguard-captured.jpg|Polina and the team captured by General Freisinger.
Vanguard-files.jpg|Polina, Kingsley and Riggs looking through the documents.
==Trivia==
*The character is based on Soviet officer Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who was a legendary sniper during World War II.
*She is similar to Rousseau from Call of Duty: WWII and Farah Karim from the Modern Warfare reboot series:
**All three lost their families to an antagonist or their forces.
**All three want to liberate their countries from a regime (Nazi Party and Barkov's forces).
**All three personally kill the antagonist (Leo Steiner and Hermann Freisinger, Carl Heinrich, J-12 and Roman Barkov).
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