Semyon Danilovich Nomokonov was one of the best Soviet snipers of World War II. But it didn't start out that way... Nomokonov was born in eastern Siberia in 1900. He was a native of the small Evenk tribe, which today numbers around 70-75,000 souls in Russia, China and Mongolia.
Everyone in his family were hunters and it was only natural that he too would develop into an excellent hunter with a "hawk's eye", as they used to say. For the first time he shot with a rifle at the age of only 7! At 15, he was baptized an Orthodox Christian and received the name Semyon (Simeon).
When the Germans invaded the USSR he was called up, in August 1941, to serve although he was already 41 years old. That is why he was placed in auxiliary service as a carpenter and assistant nurse. He became a sniper by accident...
In the fall of 1941 he was carrying a wounded colleague when he saw a German marking the wounded man. He immediately grabbed the latter's rifle and killed the German.
According to another version of the story, in October 1941, Nomokonov wanted to test a rifle and did so by killing a German. Be that as it may, after this incident he was assigned to a sniper platoon of the 221st Rifle Division.
Armed with a Mosin Nagant rifle without a scope , fought from Manchuria in 1939, Leningrad, Karelia and Lithuania, to Ukraine, East Prussia reaching the rank of sergeant.
In Manchuria he killed 8 Japanese soldiers. It is reported to have hit an opponent at a distance of 1,000m. always with the naked eye, without a scope. The frightened Germans called him the "spirit of the Taiga". Many times he used small pieces of broken mirrors to lure the Germans , who opened fire on the reflection of the light on the pieces, revealing their position and immediately fell dead by Nomokonov.
He always had a wooden pipe with him on which he carved his hits. During his action he killed 367 (368 according to other sources or 637 according to official Soviet records) opponents, among them a Gerano major general. He was also wounded 10 times, two by explosions and another eight by enemy fire. Finally, he trained over 150 shooters.
With the end of the war he returned home and worked as a carpenter. The Soviet state rewarded him with a rifle, a horse and binoculars. He himself spoke little about his action. He died in 1973 leaving behind nine children and 49 grandchildren!