Lukyan Pavlov

"You know what's keeping this regiment alive? My balls. My sheer, STEEL balls."

- Lukyan

## Profile

From the far north of the Soviet Union comes the great, the strong, the amazing Lukyan Pavlov! Born to a cavalry officer in 1919, Lukyan has always lived his life just a little more equal than others. He is a sniper with the 14th Reconnaissance Company, attached to the 13th Guards Rifle Division. A veteran of the Battle of Stalingrad, he is well-known for his non-chalant behaviour when it comes to his trade as a marksman.

## Biography

### Childhood

Lukyan was born on March 13th, 1919, to Nikolajs Pavlov (b. 1898), a young rifleman who had gotten with a girl, Taisa Jaakola, he met while returning to Karelia, where his family heritage had come from. They fell in love, and had a child, and- then his dad left to go to post secondary.

His father was admitted into the N.E. Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, which required their whole family to move to Moscow. Now, Lukyan was maybe about 5-ish when this happened, so he hadn’t really become aware of his own surroundings until a little after he moved. His father was often absent from his life, spending hours slaving away, finishing up projects and often, spending long periods of time on-base. This would lead Lukyan to end up being sent to an Internat (Boarding School) by the time he was old enough (maybe around 7…?).

Lukyan was a SLACKER throughout school. From the moment he entered the classroom, to the moment he joined the workforce. He was a lazy piece of shit. His parents PAID (yes, paid, there was a tuition cost up until the 1950s) for him to go to school, but it didn’t seem like he was too interested in it. Communism wasn’t really his favourite subject in school, you know. (this is a joke.) Lukyan was a member of the Komsomol, which, you guessed it, caused him to be absolutely verbally destroyed every single day. How he hasn’t been expelled from the program is such a bruh moment.

It was around this time that school marksmanship teams were starting to become popular, as the OSOAVIAKHIM expanded their influence throughout the education system. Lukyan had jumped onto the bandwagon and had started to participate in civilian marksmanship events hosted at local ranges. Turns out he was a crackshot. This might come in handy later. He spent a lot of his extra time, when he had it, at the range. It was usually a place where he was his calmest, probably because of all the extra breathing exercises he had to teach himself. He was a recipient of the civilian version of the “Voroshilov Marksman” award, given to young aspiring marksmen who had participated in programs sanctioned by the Osoaviakhim and Komsomol.

He’d eventually graduate with mediocre grades (though not terrible!), and end up going to a shitty technical school cuz his marks couldn’t get him anywhere else.

### Post-Secondary/Military Service

He was a mechanic’s apprentice for his time in the technicum. He’d spend 3 years trying to get some sort of qualification so he could start working full time in the trade. His abhorrently poor scheduling skills were notorious around his teachers, and would often lead to him being scolded due to his tardiness. When he did eventually graduate and have to enter the workforce, he just said fuck all and refused to go work in a factory.

So what did he do?

19 years old, 1939. Lukyan decided to join the Red Army. Why? He doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life working in a Tula arms factory, he wants to see the world! To his father’s demise, his only child decided to join the army and not the air force. But oh well, it’s his choice, isn’t it? Isn’t it…..???

Lukyan entered basic service in December of 1938 during the yearly call for conscription. He spent the full 10 months in basic training, before going through a sniper school. Now, I’m reading here that RKKA sniper schools were offered on a civilian basis alongside the actual army, so I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to write this part. From another source, I found 24(?) days to be the time that they trained on…? So I’ll just take that as the assumption.

It’s November 1939. What happened in November of 1939? Ah! Yes, the Talvisota. Thank you for reminding me.

Lukyan found himself fighting in his homeland. He’s not quite sure why they decided to attach him there, but I guess his performance in the last 11 months showed promise? There’s not much to say about Lukyan’s service in Finland, since most of the time he spent there was sitting and waiting…. Sitting and waiting….. He was very lucky not to get shot, actually. He did, however, see the occasional skirmish, and participated in it, but there wasn’t really much for him to shoot at. Most of the time, he was just observing and writing.

He’d come out of the Winter War with terrible numbers (you see, 11 officers shot isn’t a very big number to the commissar), but who am I kidding? The entire army came out with terrible numbers. Apparently 11 was enough “For Battle Merit,” which greatly surprised him when it came in the mail. To be fair, I think that one colonel he put a bullet through might have been pretty important…

After the Winter War, he just went back to sniper school. Like deadass, was there even anything to do? While his comrades were tending to their wounds, he was getting on that sniper grindset and went full out towards his instructor qualification on the national level. I think he’s starting to realise that this might just be his life from now on.

1941 hits. Lukyan is living his life. He’d gotten promoted to Efreitor, his pay grade went up, and now he’s actually an NCM. Life is great. Until the Germans start knocking on the door. So what does he do? Takes up arms and goes back to fight. He was reattached to the 87th Rifle Division, 43rd Reconnaissance Battalion and sent to fight in Ukraine. Lukyan’s division was given a Guards designation in 1942, and he was moved to the 14th Recon Company.

He participated in the Battle of Kharkov. Luckily, he didn’t die. Unluckily, his spotter did. This didn’t go well for him. He took it very personally, and is quite honestly starting to get sick of watching people die. The 13th Guards was pulled from the front in July of 1942 in order to rebuild their strength. Lukyan would be promoted to Sergeant, and gain his “Excellent Sniper” badge a month later.