Ziba Pasha qizi Ganiyeva was an Azerbaijani sniper, reconnaissance scout, and radio operator in the Red Army who killed at least 20 enemy soldiers in World War II.
10 Facts About Ziba Ganiyeva
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Ziba Ganiyeva was born to an ethnic Azerbaijani father and ethnic Uzbek mother.
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Ziba Ganiyeva soon relocated to Tashkent, where she entered the newly formed choreographic department of the Uzbek Philharmonia.
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Ziba Ganiyeva then moved to Moscow in 1940 and began attending the Lunacharsky State Institute for Theatre Arts.
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In 1941 after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Ganiyeva volunteered to join and Red Army and served in the 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division.
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Ziba Ganiyeva underwent very brief training in sharpshooting, using a machine gun, and reconnaissance, and actively promoted the sniper movement.
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Ziba Ganiyeva quickly became friends with other women soldiers in the division, and she became close friends with Nina Solovey, On 7 November 1941 she marched in the famous Red Army parade.
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In January 1942 the 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division became the 130th Rifle Division, and Ziba Ganiyeva became a sniper in the 151st Separate Motorized Rifle Reconnaissance battalion.
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Ziba Ganiyeva starred in the movie "Tahir and Zuhra" by the Uzbek director Nabi Ganiev as a Persian shahini.
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Ziba Ganiyeva received a Candidate of Sciences degree in philology.