Soviet female medics in WWII were unique among all belligerents — they were frontline combatants who also served as medical personnel. Over 550,000 women served in the Soviet medical corps. Some, like Roza Shanina, were trained as snipers but served as medical orderlies because she "wanted to protect wounded soldiers, not kill enemies." She was killed in action on January 28, 1945, near Königsberg, at age 20. Her diary, recovered from her body, documented her horror at the war, her love of literature (she kept annotated copies of Tolstoy and Pushkin), and her deep loneliness. She wrote: "I will not write about the happiness of war. I write only about what I see." She is the most decorated Soviet female combat medic of the war. The story of her death — saving a wounded soldier under mortar fire — was confirmed only in 2017, when the soldier she saved, Nikolai V. Kaverin, gave his final interview at age 94.