From 1942 to 1943, she shot dead hundreds of Soviet partisans and their family members using a Russian M1910 Maxim machine gun.

[4] Antonina Makarova was born in the small village of Malaya Volkovka in the Sychyovsky Uyezd of Smolensk Governorate.

Usually, Makarova was ordered to kill groups of 27 people at a time, which was the number of prisoners the local jailhouse could hold.

[3] Antonina and her husband lived as respected citizens enjoying all the privileges granted to war veterans.

In 1976, a Soviet Army officer named Panfilov was registering some documents of his relatives in order to get a visa.

Knowing the risk of wrongfully slandering a war veteran and destroying their reputation, the KGB spent a year carefully observing Makarova.

[3] Throughout her interrogation, Makarova remained calm, believing that due to the lapse of time, she would only serve a few years in prison.

[2][5] She was one of only three women legally executed by the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin, the others being Berta Borodkina for corruption and serial killer Tamara Ivanyutina.