Marie Ljalková

Marie Ljalková-Lastovecká (3 December 1920 – 7 November 2011) was a Czech sniper in the Soviet Army during  World War II. Ljalková (born Petrušáková) was born in Horodenka, Poland (today in Ukraine) to a family of Volhynian Czechs. She lost her parents at the age of 12; afterwards she lived with her aunt in Stanisławów (today Ivano-Frankivs'k, Ukraine). She met her first husband, Michal Ljalko, there.

World War II
After the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, Ljalková joined the First Czechoslovak Independent Field Battalion as a volunteer in March 1942, aged 21, and graduated from a three-month sniper school in Buzuluk.

Her first combat experience came during the three-day Battle of Sokolovo (March 8–11, 1943) when she was credited with killing seven German soldiers, earning her immediate ace status. She later became a sniper instructor of the Czechoslovak and Soviet infantry, and was at some point an ambulance driver.

Awards
She was credited with at least 30 confirmed kills during the war, and earned recognition with the Soviet Order of the Red Star and the Czechoslovak War Cross.

After World War II
After the war, she studied medicine, and worked as a military doctor in Olomouc and in the Central Military Hospital in Prague. After that she was moved to Brno hospital where she met her second husband, Václav Lastovecký. She eventually attained the rank of colonel, but due to health problems she left the Army and started to work as a tourist guide for Russian speaking tourists. She spent the rest of her life in Brno.

On October 28, 2010 she received the Order of the White Lion II. class, Czech second highest medal.