During the second World War, the Soviet Union required additional land to protect Leningrad whenever the Germans would attacked. The land was planned to be obtained from Finland’s borders, yet they refused so. Furious, the Soviet Union, on November 30th, 1939, declared war on Finland beginning an embarrassing military conflict called the Russo-Finnish War, also known as the Winter War. Upon ranks of the Finnish in the 6th Company of the 34th infantry regiment during the Battle of Kollaa was a famously known sniper known as Simo Häyhä.

Häyhä was born on December 17th, 1939 in the municipality of Rautjärvi in the Grand Duchy of Finland. He was raised in a Lutheran heritage family of farmers. Häyhä, in his early age, was a farmer, hunter, and said to be an excellent skier. He would join the Suojeluskunta (White Guard or Civil Guard), a Finnish voluntary militia, at age 20. Häyhä had won many trophies for his marksmanship in the Viipuri Province.

When the Winter War broke out, he served as a sniper at the age of 33, celebrating his 34th on the Kollaa battlefield. For his entire service in the Winter War, he managed to earn 259 confirmed kills, but Häyhä himself, in his diary entries, writes that he racked 505 kills. He earned these kills by killing individuals with his submachine gun, the Suomi KP/-31, and mainly with his sniper rifle, a M/28-30 which is a Finnish-variant of the Mosin Nagant, nicknamed the Pystykorva (The Spitz). What is peculiar with Häyhä and his marksmanship is that he never used a telescopic scope for his rifle, only iron sights.

Häyhä would achieve this kills while completely concealed from enemy. Häyhä had no problem when killing enemy Russian soldiers as he stated, “I didn’t feel anything towards the enemy. I just fired and loaded and continued as long as there were enemies”. With this statement, he remarked that he killed the enemy as if they were animals he were hunting. Häyhä would earn the nickname “White Death”.

Even though the war only lasted 105 days, his service only lasted a total of 98 days. On March 6th, 1940 in forests of Ulismaa in the Kollaa Region, Häyhä was struck with a explosive bullet in his lower left jaw. Despite this, he survived the bullet, being found with half his face gone. He received 26 surgeries. Häyhä would live life after the second World War as dog breeder and successful moose hunter, having a chance to hunt with the Finnish President Urho Kekkonen. Eventually, he would die at the age of 96 in 2002 in the war veteran’s nursery home in Hamima and buried Ruokolahti.