Shkarletova was born on 3 February 1925 in Kislovka to a Ukrainian peasant family. After graduating from secondary school she worked in the railroad industry and later on a collective farm until the start of the Second World War, after which she worked in the construction of defensive fortifications until German forces occupied her village in July 1942. Because German troops surrounded the city before she and the rest of her family were evacuated, she was not able to join the Red Army until Soviet troops retook control of the city in July 1943.[1][2]