Jr. Lt. Ziba Pasha qizi Ganiyeva (Azerbaijani: Ziba Paşa qızı Qəniyeva, born 20 August 1923 in Shamakhi, Azerbaijan[1] or in Uzbekistan[2]) is an Azerbaijani philologist and a former World War II female sniper (Northwestern Front, 3rd Moscow Communist Division),[3] accounted for 21 kills and awarded with the Medal For the Defence of Moscow, Combat Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star.[4]
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Ziba Ganiyeva is Azeri by her father and Uzbek by her mother.[2] In 1937, she was admitted to dance courses at the newly-established Uzbek Philharmonia. In 1940, she moved to Moscow to enter the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts, but voluntarily enlisted in the army on 7 November 1941, shortly after the opening of the Eastern Front of World War II. She was accompanied by another sniper, Nina Solovey.
During the war, Ganiyeva was a radio operator and a spy who crossed the front line 16 times. She participated in the Battle of Moscow. Ziba's military service was discontinued after she was heavily wounded during the reconnaissance operation in Moscow suburbs in 1942. She was carried off the battlefield and subsequently spent 11 months in hospital.
After the war she continued her postsecondary education and in 1965, received a Candidate of Sciences degree in philology.
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