In the Soldier category, Strange Things Afoot at the Circle K selects Vasily Zaytsev: this Soviet war hero was crucial to the battle for Stalingrad, which in turn would be a key victory in turning the Germans back from Russia. In a battle that saw over a million Soviet troops wounded or killed (in part due to Soviet tactics of sending vast hordes of poorly armed soldiers at their more well-armed opponent), Zaytsev's proficiency as a sniper began a new approach for the soviets: actually taking time to train soldiers so that they would kill more often than they would get killed. Zaytsev would record 242 confirmed kills and as many as 500 total in the four months that he participated in the battle, before becoming injured in a mortar attack. More important, however, was the sniper school that he lead following his recovery, where his 30 or so students recorded over 3000 kills over the remainder of the battle.
His story was portrayed and largely fictionalized in the movie Enemy at the Gates, which was based around a battle with a possibly fictitious high-ranking Nazi sniper.