Lyudmila Pavlichenko is the work’s protagonist and one of its three narrators. When the work opens in 1937, Mila is raising her five-year-old son alone and attending university to study history. She notes, “My student card had been hard won after a year of studying at night […] I’d been operating on four hours of sleep a night, but it was all worth it,” foreshadowing her determination to succeed and provide a secure future for her son (14).

In the early stages of her character development, she is uncertain of herself and desperate to make a successful life after a failed marriage to Alexei, who seduced her into a sexual relationship that resulted in the birth of their son when she was only 15. After she shoots badly at a firing range in front of Alexei, Mila resolves to live a life with “no more mistakes” (21). She trains in advanced marksmanship, pleased to prove to herself that she can master any skill her son needs her to. Likewise, after enlisting in the Red Army, she realizes that her shooting skills come from her obsession with redeeming her past mistakes: “[T]hat compulsion not to miss was so strong, I’d put two live targets down today without hesitation” (65).