Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, also known as Lady Death, killed over 300 Nazi soldiers. She is regarded as the most successful female sniper in history.

Pvt Luba Rosenova (pictured) was a "brown-haired, blue-eyed 19-year-old" when she had met French soldier Henri Laure in a German POW camp near Magdeburg. The pair spent two years together in the camp, and planned to be married. The building on the right is the Hermann Tietz department store on Berlin's Alexanderplatz.

Yevdokia Bershanskaya (L) was a Soviet pilot and second in command of the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. Valentina Matyukhina (R) was a senior lieutenant, and a master pilot in the 125th Borisov Guards Bomber Regiment. Valentina completed 53 missions before dying in combat.

Matryona Goncharova was born on Nov. 18, 1924, in the village of Novaya Alyonovka in the Russian region of Voronezh. In 1942, she volunteered for the front. She was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class, as well as medals for courage.

More than 20 million Soviet citizens died in World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. In the days preceding May 9, or Victory Day, Russians take time to remember the many men and women who sacrificed their lives. Russian digital artist Olga Shirnina is one of those bringing the era to life with these colorized photographs.