Futility Closet

Lyudmila Pavlichenko was training for a career as a history teacher when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. She suspended her studies to enlist as a sniper in the Red Army, where she discovered a remarkable talent for shooting enemy soldiers. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll trace the career of "Lady Death," the deadliest female sniper in history. We'll also learn where in the world futility.closet.podcast is and puzzle over Air Force One. Intro: Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes creates a host of puzzles in the philosophy of art. German architect Herman Sörgel wanted to dam the Congo to create two African seas. Sources for our feature on Lyudmila Pavlichenko: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin's Sniper, 2018. Roger Reese, "Soviet Women at War," Military History 28:1 (May 2011), 44-53,5. Drew Lindsay, "Why Not Send Women to War?" MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History 25:3 (Spring 2013), 50-55, 58-61. Karl E. Friedl, "Biases of the Incumbents: What If W