Lyudmila Mikhaylovna Pavlichenko (Lyudmila Pavlichenko) was born on July 11, 1916, in Belaya Tserkov, Vasilkovskiy uezd, Kievskaya guberniya, Russian Empire [now Bila Tserkva, Kyyivska oblast, Ukraine]. She died on October 27, 1974, at the age of 58, in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. The total of her confirmed kills during World War II was 309, including 36 enemy snipers.
When Eleanor Roosevelt met the representatives from China and USSR, the first Chinese soldier said his name is Qiu Shaoyun. Qiu Shaoyun is a real historical figure. However, he didn't join the army until 1949, and he is a soldier of the People's Liberation Army, which means it is impossible to see him as a representative of China to the US in 1942.
The life story of Ludmila Belova (Lyudmila Pavlichenko) was made up. Whole love story had nothing in common with real life-she had no affairs during the war. She was a big lover of shooting and rifles, and was studying at the sniper school before the war. She was not forced to serve or to shoot, in her first combat she didn't kill anyone at all. She never destroyed a tank (this story is not just made up, but hilariously crazy), and whole daily life of a sniper in this movie was the opposite to what she described in her memoirs.
The movie was planned to be shot entirely in Crimea, Ukraine. However, only the fall and winter scenes were shot in Sevastopol in 2013. Russia invaded Crimea, so further filming was done in peaceful Ukrainian territories in Odesa, Kamyanets-Podilskyi, and Kyiv in the spring and summer of 2014.