Bochkareva Maria Leontievna (née Frolkova, July 1889 - May 1920) - often considered the first Russian female officer (produced during the 1917 revolution). Bochkareva created the first in the history of the Russian army women's battalion. Cavalier of the George Cross.
In July 1889, the third child, daughter Marusya, was born to the peasants of the village of Nikolskoye, Kirillovsky district, Novgorod province, Leonty Semenovich and Olga Eleazarovna Frolkov. Soon the family, fleeing poverty, moved to Siberia, where the government promised the settlers large plots of land and financial support. But, apparently, it was not possible to get away from poverty here either. At the age of fifteen, Mary was married. The following entry was preserved in the book of the Resurrection Church dated January 22, 1905: “Afanasy Sergeevich Bochkarev, 23 years old, of the Orthodox faith, living in the Tomsk province, Tomsk district of the Semiluk volost of the village of Bolshoe Kuskovo, married the maiden Maria Leontievna Frolkova, of the Orthodox faith…” . They settled in Tomsk. Married life went wrong almost immediately, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunken husband without regret. Maria left him for the butcher Yakov Buk. In May 1912, Buk was arrested on charges of robbery and sent to serve his sentence in Yakutsk. Bochkareva followed him on foot to Eastern Siberia, where they opened a butcher's shop for cover, although in reality Buk hunted in a gang of hunghuz. Soon the police came on the trail of the gang, and Buk was transferred to a settlement in the taiga village of Amga.
Although Bochkareva again followed in his footsteps, her betrothed took to drink and began to engage in assault. At this time the First World War broke out. Bochkareva decided to join the ranks of the army and, having parted with her Yashka, arrived in Tomsk. The military refused to enroll the girl in the 24th reserve battalion and advised her to go to the front as a nurse. Then Bochkareva sent a telegram to the tsar, which was unexpectedly followed by a positive response. So she got to the front.
At first, a woman in uniform caused ridicule and harassment by her colleagues, but her courage in battle brought her universal respect, the St. George Cross and three medals. In those years, she was given the nickname "Yashka", in memory of her unlucky life partner. After two wounds and countless battles, Bochkareva was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer.
In 1917, Kerensky turned to Bochkareva with a request to organize a "women's death battalion"; his wife and St. Petersburg institutes were involved in the patriotic project, with a total number of up to 2000 people. In an unusual military unit, iron discipline reigned: subordinates complained to their superiors that Bochkareva "beats their faces like a real wahmister of the old regime." Not many have withstood such a circumvention: for short term the number of female volunteers was reduced to three hundred. The rest separated into a special women's battalion that defended the Winter Palace during the October Revolution.
In the summer of 1917, Bochkareva's detachment distinguished itself at Smorgon; his steadfastness made an indelible impression on the command (Anton Denikin). After the shell shock received in that battle, warrant officer Bochkareva was sent to the Petrograd hospital for recovery, and in the capital she received the rank of second lieutenant, but soon after returning to her position she had to disband the battalion, due to the actual collapse of the front and the October Revolution.
Maria Bochkareva among the defenders of Petrograd
In winter, she was detained by the Bolsheviks on the way to Tomsk. After refusing to cooperate with the new authorities, she was accused of having relations with General Kornilov, the matter almost went to the tribunal. Thanks to the help of one of her former colleagues, Bochkareva broke free and, dressed in the outfit of a sister of mercy, traveled the whole country to Vladivostok, from where she sailed on a campaign trip to the USA and Europe.
In April 1918, Bochkareva arrived in San Francisco. With the support of the influential and wealthy Florence Harriman, the daughter of a Russian peasant crossed the United States and was awarded an audience with President Woodrow Wilson at the White House on July 10. According to eyewitnesses, Bochkareva's story about her dramatic fate and pleas for help against the Bolsheviks moved the president to tears.
Maria Bochkareva, Emmeline Pankhurst (British public and political figure, women's rights activist, leader of the British suffragette movement) and a woman from the Women's Battalion, 1917.
Maria Bochkareva and Emmeline Pankhurst
Journalist Isaac Don Levin, based on the stories of Bochkareva, wrote a book about her life, which was published in 1919 under the title "Yashka" and was translated into several languages.
After visiting London, where she met with King George V and secured his financial support, Bochkareva arrived in Arkhangelsk in August 1918. She hoped to raise local women to fight the Bolsheviks, but things went badly. General Marushevsky, in an order dated December 27, 1918, announced that the conscription of women to an unsuitable for them military service would be a disgrace to the population of the Northern Region, and forbade Bochkareva to wear the self-appointed officer uniform.
The following year, she was already in Tomsk under the banner of Admiral Kolchak, trying to put together a battalion of nurses. She regarded Kolchak's flight from Omsk as a betrayal, voluntarily appeared before the local authorities, who took a written undertaking not to leave her.
Siberian period (19th year, on the Kolchak fronts...)
A few days later, during a church service, 31-year-old Bochkareva was taken into custody by security officers. Clear evidence of her betrayal or collaboration with the whites could not be found, and the proceedings dragged on for four months. According to the Soviet version, on May 16, 1920, she was shot in Krasnoyarsk on the basis of the resolution of the head of the Special Department of the Cheka of the 5th Army, Ivan Pavlunovsky, and his deputy Shimanovsky. But in the conclusion of the Russian prosecutor's office on the rehabilitation of Bochkareva in 1992, it is said that there is no evidence of her execution.
Women's battalions
M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a propaganda trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, specifically asked to meet with her and took her with him to Petrograd to agitate the "war to a victorious end" in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the congress of soldiers deputies of the Petrosoviet. In a speech to the delegates of the congress, Bochkareva for the first time voiced her idea of \u200b\u200bcreating shock women's "death battalions". After that, she was invited to a meeting of the Provisional Government to repeat her proposal.
“I was told that my idea was excellent, but I need to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. Together with Rodzyanka, I went to Brusilov’s Headquarters. Brusilov told me in the office that you rely on women, and that the formation of a women’s battalion is the first in the world. Can't women dishonor Russia? I told Brusilov that I myself am not sure about women, but if you give me full authority, then I guarantee that my battalion will not dishonor Russia. Brusilov told me that he believes me, and will do her best to help in the formation of the women's volunteer battalion."
Battalion recruits
On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony was held to present a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first women's military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." On June 29, the Military Council approved the regulation "On the formation of military units from female volunteers."
“Kerensky listened with obvious impatience. It was obvious that he had already made a decision on this matter. He had only one doubt: whether I could maintain high morale and morality in this battalion. Kerensky said that he would allow me to begin formation immediately<…>When Kerensky escorted me to the door, his eyes rested on General Polovtsev. He asked him to give me any help needed. I almost suffocated with happiness."
The commander of the Petrograd Military District, General P. A. Polovtsov, conducts a review of the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion. Summer 1917
First of all, front-line soldiers, who were still in the imperial army, some of them were Knights of St. George, and women from civil society - noblewomen, students, teachers, workers - were recorded in the ranks of the "shocks". The percentage of soldiers and Cossacks was large: 38. In the Bochkareva battalion, they were presented as girls of many famous noble families Russia, and ordinary peasant women and servants. Maria N. Skrydlova, the daughter of the admiral, served as Bochkareva's adjutant. By nationality, the volunteers were mostly Russian, but there were also other nationalities - Estonians, Latvians, Jews, and an Englishwoman. population women's formations ranged from 250 to 1500 fighters each. The formation took place exclusively on a voluntary basis.
The appearance of the Bochkareva detachment served as an impetus for the formation of women's detachments in other cities of the country (Kyiv, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to the intensifying processes of the destruction of the entire state, the creation of these women's shock parts were never completed.
Recruit training
Women's Battalion. Camp life training.
At the training camp in Levashevo
Mounted scouts of the Women's Battalion
Volunteers during rest hours
Officially, as of October 1917, there were: 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion (infantry); Maritime women's team (Oranienbaum); Cavalry 1st Petrograd Battalion of the Women's Military Union; Minsk separate guard squad of female volunteers. The first three battalions visited the front, only the 1st battalion of Bochkareva was in the battles
The mass of soldiers and the Soviets perceived the "women's battalions of death" (however, like all other "shock units") "with hostility." Front-line shock workers were not called anything other than prostitutes. In early July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded the disbandment of all "women's battalions", both because they were "unsuitable for military service" and because the formation of such battalions "is a covert maneuver of the bourgeoisie that wants to wage war to a victorious end"
Solemn farewell to the front of the First Women's Battalion. A photo. Moscow Red Square. summer 1917
The women's battalion goes to the front
On June 27, the "battalion of death" consisting of two hundred volunteers arrived in the army - in the rear units of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army Western Front to the area of the city of Molodechno. On July 7, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock women, received an order to take up positions at the front near the town of Krevo. The "death battalion" took up positions on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, the first battle of the Bochkareva battalion took place. In the bloody battles that lasted until July 10, 170 women participated. The regiment repelled 14 German attacks. Volunteers went on the counterattack several times. Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in a report about the action of the "death battalion":
The detachment of Bochkareva behaved heroically in battle, all the time in the front line, serving on a par with the soldiers. During the attack of the Germans, on his own initiative, he rushed as one in a counterattack; brought cartridges, went into secrets, and some went into reconnaissance; with their work, the death team set an example of courage, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes was worthy of the title of a warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.
Private of the Women's Battalion Pelageya Saygin
The battalion lost 30 men killed and 70 wounded. Maria Bochkareva, herself wounded in this battle for the fifth time, spent 1½ months in the hospital and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.
In hospital
Such heavy losses of volunteers had other consequences for the women's battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief L. G. Kornilov, by his Order, prohibited the creation of new women's "death battalions" for combat use, and the already created units were ordered to be used only in auxiliary sectors (security functions, communications , sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with weapons in their hands wrote statements asking them to be fired from the "parts of death"
One of the women's death battalions (1st Petrograd, under the command of the Life Guards of the Keksholmsky Regiment: 39 Staff Captain A. V. Loskov), together with cadets and other units loyal to the oath, took part in the defense of the Winter Palace in October 1917. where the Provisional Government was located.
On November 7, a battalion stationed near the Levashovo station of Finlyandskaya railway, was supposed to go to the Romanian front (according to the plans of the command, it was supposed to send each of the formed women's battalions to the front to raise the morale of male soldiers - one for each of the four fronts of the Eastern Front).
1st Petrograd Women's Battalion
But on November 6, the battalion commander Loskov received an order to send the battalion to Petrograd "for the parade" (in fact, to protect the Provisional Government). Loskov, having learned about the real task, not wanting to involve volunteers in a political confrontation, withdrew the entire battalion from Petrograd back to Levashovo, with the exception of the 2nd company (137 people).
2nd company of the 1st Petrograd women's battalion
The headquarters of the Petrograd Military District tried, with the help of two platoons of volunteers and units of cadets, to ensure the wiring of the Nikolaevsky, Palace and Liteiny bridges, but the Sovietized sailors frustrated this task.
Volunteers on the square in front of the Winter Palace. November 7, 1917
The company took up defense on the first floor Winter Palace on the site to the right of the main gate to Millionnaya street. At night, during the storming of the palace by the revolutionaries, the company surrendered, was disarmed and taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier Regiment, where some shock women were “mistreated” - as a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma established, three shock women were raped (although, perhaps, few dared to admit it), one committed suicide. On November 8, the company was sent to the place of its former deployment in Levashovo.
After the October Revolution, the Bolshevik government, which had set a course for the complete collapse of the army, for immediate defeat in the war and for the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany, was not interested in preserving the "shock units". On November 30, 1917, the Military Council of the still old War Ministry issued an order to disband the "women's death battalions". Shortly before this, on November 19, by order of the Military Ministry, all female soldiers were promoted to officers, "for military merit." However, many volunteers remained in their units until January 1918 and beyond. Some of them moved to the Don and took part in the fight against Bolshevism in the ranks of the White movement.
Women's Death Battalion 1917
The women's death battalion in the First World War (photos are available in the article) arose at the behest of the Provisional Government. One of the main initiators of its creation was M. Bochkareva. The Women's Death Battalion in World War I was created to raise the morale of male soldiers who refused to go to the front.
Maria Bochkareva
Since 1914, she was at the front with the rank of senior non-commissioned officer, having received Highest Resolution. Thanks to her heroism, by 1917 Maria Bochkareva became quite famous. Rodzianko, who arrived on the Western Front in April, secured a personal meeting with her, and then took her with him to Petrograd to conduct agitation for the struggle "to the bitter end" in the garrison troops and in front of the delegates of the Congress of the Petrosoviet. In her speech, Bochkareva put forward a proposal to form a women's death battalion. In the war, according to her, such a formation was extremely necessary. After that, she was invited to speak at a meeting of the Provisional Government.
Prerequisites for the formation of a detachment
During World War I the most different ages- schoolgirls, female students and representatives of other strata of society - went voluntarily to the front. In the "Bulletin of the Red Cross" in 1915, a story appeared about 12 girls who fought in the Carpathians. They were 14-16 years old. In the very first battles, two schoolgirls were killed and 4 were wounded. The soldiers treated the girls in a paternal way. They got them uniforms, taught them how to shoot, and then signed them up under male names like ordinary. What made women who were pretty, young, rich or noble, plunge into military everyday life? Documents and memoirs point to many reasons. The main one, of course, was a patriotic impulse. He covered everything Russian society. It was the feeling of patriotism and duty that made many women change their elegant outfits for military uniform or the clothes of sisters of mercy. Family circumstances were also important. Some women went to the front for their husbands, others, having learned about their death, joined the army out of a sense of revenge.
The developing movement for equality of rights with men also played a special role. The revolutionary 1917 gave women many opportunities. They received voting and other rights. All this contributed to the emergence of soldier detachments, which consisted entirely of women. In the spring and summer of 1917, units began to form throughout the country. Already from the name itself it was clear what the women's battalion of death was. In the First World War, the girls were ready to give their lives for their Motherland. About 2,000 girls responded to Bochkareva's call. However, only 300 of them were selected for the women's death battalion. In the First World War, the "shock girls" showed what Russian girls are capable of. With their heroism, they infected all the soldiers who participated in the battles.
Women's death battalion: the history of creation
The battalion was formed in a fairly short time. In 1917, on June 21, a solemn ceremony was held near St. Isaac's Cathedral on the square. On it, a new military formation received a white banner. On June 29, the Regulations were approved. It established the procedure for the formation of military units from female volunteers. Representatives of different strata of society were enrolled in the ranks of the "drummers". So, for example, Bochkareva's adjutant was the 25-year-old general's daughter Maria Skrydlova. She had an excellent education and knew five languages.
The women's death battalion in the First World War consisted of women serving in front-line units and ordinary citizens. Among the latter were noblewomen, workers, teachers, female students. Simple peasant women, servants, girls from famous noble families, soldiers, Cossacks - they and many others went to serve in the women's death battalion. The history of the creation of the part of Bochkareva began in a difficult time. However, this was the impetus for the unification of girls in soldier groups in other cities. Mostly Russian women entered the unit. However, it was possible to meet representatives of other nationalities. So, according to the documents, Estonians, Latvians, Jews also went to serve in the women's death battalion.
The history of the creation of the detachments testifies to the high patriotism of the fairer sex. Parts began to form in Kyiv, Smolensk, Kharkov, Mariupol, Baku, Irkutsk, Odessa, Poltava, Vyatka and other cities. According to sources, a lot of girls immediately signed up for the first women's death battalion. In the First World War, military formations numbered from 250 to 1500 people. In October 1917, the following were formed: the Naval team, the Minsk guard squad, the Petrograd Cavalry Regiment, as well as the First Petrograd, Second Moscow, Third Kuban women's death battalion. In the First World War (history testifies to this), only the last three detachments participated. However, due to the increasing destruction Russian Empire the formation of the parts was never completed.
Public attitude
The Russian historian Solntseva wrote that the Soviets and the mass of soldiers perceived the female death battalion rather negatively. In the World War, however, the role of the detachment was quite significant. However, many front-line soldiers spoke very unflatteringly about the girls. In early July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded that all battalions be disbanded. It was said that these units were "unfit for service." In addition, the Petrograd Soviet regarded the formation of these detachments as a "hidden bourgeois maneuver", as a desire to bring the struggle to victory.
Women's death battalion in World War I: photos, activities
Part of Bochkareva arrived in the active army on June 27, 1917. The number of the detachment was 200 people. The female death battalion entered the rear units of the First Siberian Corps of the 10th Army on the Western Front. An offensive was being prepared for July 9th. On the 7th, the infantry regiment, which included the female death battalion, received an order. He was supposed to take a position at Krevo. On the right flank of the regiment was a shock battalion. They were the first to enter the battle, since the enemy, who knew about the plans of the Russian army, inflicting a preemptive strike, entered the location of our troops.
Within three days, 14 enemy attacks were repelled. Several times during this time the battalion made counterattacks. As a result, the German soldiers were driven out of the positions they had occupied the day before. In his report, Colonel Zakrzhevsky wrote that the women's death battalion in the First World War behaved heroically, being constantly at the forefront. The girls served in the same way as the soldiers, on a par with them. When the Germans attacked, they all rushed to the counterattack, went on reconnaissance, brought cartridges. The women's death battalion in the First World War was an example of bravery, calmness and courage. Each of these girl-heroines is worthy of the highest title of Soldier of the revolutionary army of Russia. As Bochkareva herself testified, out of 170 strikers who took part in the battles, 30 people were killed and about 70 were wounded. She herself was wounded five times. After the battle, Bochkareva was in the hospital for a month and a half. For participation in the battles and the heroism shown, she was awarded the rank of second lieutenant.
Consequences of losses
Due to the large number of girls killed and wounded in the battles, General Kornilov signed an order prohibiting the formation of new death battalions to participate in the battles. The existing detachments were assigned only an auxiliary function. In particular, they were ordered to provide security, communications, act as sanitary groups. As a result, many female volunteers who wanted to fight for their Motherland with weapons in their hands applied with written statements, which contained a request to dismiss them from the death battalion.
Discipline
She was tough enough. The women's death battalion in the First World War showed not only an example of courage and patriotism. The main principles were proclaimed:
Positive points
The women's death battalion in the First World War not only participated in battles. "Drummers" got the opportunity to master men's professions. For example, Princess Shakhovskaya is the world's first female pilot. In Germany, in 1912, she was issued a pilot's license. There, at the Johannistal airfield, she worked for some time as an instructor. At the beginning of the war, Shakhovskaya filed a petition to send her as a military pilot to the front. The emperor granted the request, and in November 1914 the princess was enrolled in the rank of ensign in the First Aviation Detachment.
Another striking example is Elena Samsonova. She was the daughter of a military engineer, she graduated from the gymnasium and courses in Peretburg with a gold medal. In the Warsaw hospital, Samsonova worked as a nurse. After that, she was enlisted as a driver in the 9th Army, located on the Southwestern Front. However, she did not serve there for long - about four months, and then was sent to Moscow. Before the war, Samsonova received a pilot diploma. In 1917, she was assigned to the 26th Aviation Detachment.
Protection of the Provisional Government
One of the "shock battalions" (the First Petrograd, commanded by Staff Captain Loskov), together with cadets and other units, took part in October 1917 in protecting the Winter Palace. On October 25, the detachment, which was quartered at the Levashovo station, was supposed to head to the Romanian front. But the day before, Loskov received an order to send a unit "on parade" to Petrograd. In fact, it was supposed to provide protection
Loskov learned about the real task and did not want to involve his subordinates in political disagreements. He led the battalion back to Levashovo, except for the 2nd company of 137 people. With the help of two shock platoons, the headquarters of the Petrograd district tried to carry out the wiring of Liteiny, Dvortsovoy and But this task was thwarted by Sovietized sailors. The remaining company of strikers was located to the right of the main gate on the ground floor of the palace. During the night assault, she surrendered, was disarmed. The girls were taken to the barracks, first by Pavlovsky, and then. According to some reports, a number of shock girls were "ill-treated." Subsequently, a special commission of the Petrograd Duma found that four girls had been raped (although, probably, few were ready to admit it at all), and one committed suicide. On October 26, the company was poisoned back to Levashovo.
Squad liquidation
After graduation October revolution the new Soviet government took a course towards making peace, as well as withdrawing the country from the war. In addition, part of the forces was sent to eliminate the Imperial Army. As a result, all "shock units" were disbanded. The battalions were disbanded on November 30, 1917 by order of the Military Council of the former Ministry. Although shortly before this event, it was ordered to make all members of volunteer units for military merit into officers. Nevertheless, a large number of shock girls remained in positions until January 1918 and beyond.
Some women moved to the Don. There they took an active part in the fight against the Bolsheviks in the ranks. The last of the remaining units was the Third Kuban death battalion. He was quartered in Yekaterinodar. This shock unit was disbanded only by February 26, 1918. The reason was the refusal of the headquarters of the Caucasian district to provide further supplies to the detachment.
and form
Women who served in the Bochkareva battalion wore the symbol of "Adam's Head" on their chevrons. They, like other soldiers, passed the medical examination. Like men, girls cut their hair almost bald. During the hostilities, women's participation and asceticism acquired a mass character for the first time in history. There were more than 25,000 female volunteers in the Russian army at the front. A sense of patriotism and duty to the Fatherland led many of them to serve. Being in the ranks of the army changed their outlook.
Finally
It must be said that Kerensky played a special role in the creation of the first women's battalion. He was the first to support this idea. Kerensky received a huge number of petitions and telegrams from women who sought to join the ranks of the unit. He also received the minutes of the meetings and various notes. All these papers reflected the women's concern about the future fate of the country, as well as the desire to protect the Motherland and preserve the freedom of the people. They believed that to remain inactive is tantamount to shame. Women aspired to the army, guided solely by love for the motherland, the desire to raise the morale of the soldiers. The Main Directorate of the General Staff formed a special commission on labor service. At the same time, the headquarters of the military districts began to work to attract female volunteers to the army. However, the desire of women was so great that a wave of creation of military organizations spontaneously passed through the country.
“Sometimes there are no names left from the heroes of bygone times ...” These lines of a popular song can be safely attributed to the fate of the creator of the first women's shock battalion, Maria Bochkareva.
During her lifetime, the fame of this amazing woman was so great that many stars of modern politics and show business could envy her. Reporters vied with each other to interview her, illustrated magazines placed her photo portraits and enthusiastic articles about the “hero woman” on the covers. But, alas, a few years later, only Mayakovsky’s contemptuous lines about the “Bochkarev fools” who stupidly tried to defend the Winter Palace on the night of the October Revolution remained in the memory of compatriots ...
The fate of Maria Leontyevna Bochkareva is akin to a love-adventure novel so fashionable today: the wife of a drunkard worker, a bandit's girlfriend, a servant in a brothel. Then an unexpected turn - a brave front-line soldier, non-commissioned officer and officer of the Russian army, one of the heroines of the First World War. A simple peasant woman, who only at the end of her life learned the basics of literacy, had a chance in her lifetime to meet with the head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky, the two supreme commanders of the Russian army - A.A. Brusilov and L.G. Kornilov. "Russian Joan of Arc" was officially received by US President Woodrow Wilson and English King George V.
Maria was born in July 1889 in Siberia in a peasant family. In 1905, she married 23-year-old Afanasy Bochkarev. Married life almost immediately went wrong, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunken husband without regret. It was then that she met her fatal love"In the person of a certain Yankel (Yakov) Buk, who, according to the documents, was listed as a peasant, but in fact he hunted robbery in a gang of "Hunghuz". When Yakov was finally arrested, Bochkareva decided to share the fate of her beloved and, like a Decembrist, went after him along the stage to Yakutsk. But even in the settlement, Yakov continued to do the same things - he bought stolen goods and even participated in the attack on the post office.
To prevent Buk from being sent even further to Kolymsk, Maria agreed to give in to the harassment of the Yakut governor. But, unable to survive the betrayal, she tried to poison herself, and then told everything to Buk. Yakov was hardly tied up in the governor's office, where he went to kill the seducer, then he was again convicted and sent to the remote Yakut village of Amga. Maria was the only Russian woman here. True, her former relationship with her lover has not been restored ...
When the First World War began, Maria decided to finally break with Yankel and go as a soldier in the army. In November 1914, in Tomsk, she addresses the commander of the 25th reserve battalion. He invited her to go to the front as a sister of mercy, but Maria continued to insist on her own. An annoying petitioner is given ironic advice: to turn directly to the emperor. For the last eight rubles, Bochkareva sends a telegram to the highest name and soon, much to the surprise of the command, receives permission from Nicholas II. She was enlisted as a civilian soldier. According to an unwritten rule, the soldiers gave each other nicknames. Remembering Buk, Maria asks to call herself Yashka.
Yashka fearlessly went into bayonet attacks, pulled the wounded from the battlefield, was wounded several times. "For outstanding valor" she received the George Cross and three medals. She is awarded the rank of junior, and then senior non-commissioned officer.
The February revolution turned the world familiar to Mary: endless rallies were held at the positions, fraternization with the enemy began. Thanks to an unexpected acquaintance with the chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, M. V. Rodzianko, who came to the front to speak, Bochkareva ended up in Petrograd in early May 1917. Here she is trying to implement an unexpected bold idea - to create special military units from female volunteers and, together with them, continue to defend the Motherland. There were no such units before in any of the countries participating in the world war.
Bochkareva's initiative was approved by Minister of War A.F. Kerensky and Supreme Commander A.A. Brusilov. In their opinion, the "female factor" could have a positive moral impact on the decaying army. Supported the idea and patriotic women's public organizations. Over two thousand women responded to the appeal of Bochkareva and the Women's Union for Homeland Aid. By order of Kerensky, women soldiers were given a separate room on Torgovaya Street, ten experienced instructors were sent to teach them military formation and handling weapons. Food for the "drummers" was brought from the barracks of the 2nd Baltic Naval Crew located nearby.
Initially, it was even supposed that with the first detachment of female volunteers, Kerensky's wife Olga would go to the front as a sister of mercy, who pledged "if necessary, to remain in the trenches all the time." But, looking ahead, let's say that the “Madam Minister” never got to the trenches ...
Numerous publications and photo essays depicted the life of female soldiers in very idyllic colors. The reality, alas, was more prosaic and harsher. Maria established strict discipline in the battalion: rising at five in the morning, classes until ten in the evening, a short rest and a simple soldier's lunch. "Intelligent persons" soon began to complain that Bochkareva was too rude and "beats the faces like a real sergeant major of the old regime." In addition, she forbade any councils and committees to be organized in her battalion and party agitators to appear there. Supporters of "democratic reforms" even addressed the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General P. A. Polovtsev, but in vain: "She (Bochkareva. - A. K.)," he wrote in his memoirs "Days of Eclipse," fiercely and expressively waving fist, says that the dissatisfied let them get out, that she wants to have a disciplined part.
In the end, a split occurred in the battalion being formed - about 300 women remained with Bochkareva, and the rest formed an independent shock battalion. Ironically, some of the "shock girls" expelled by Bochkareva "for easy behavior" became part of the new 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion, whose units on October 25, 1917 unsuccessfully defended the Winter Palace, the last residence of the Provisional Government.
But let's get back to the actual Bochkarevsky "drummers". On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony was held to present a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first women's military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." This day is captured in the second picture from the museum collection. On the left flank of the detachment, in a brand new uniform of an ensign (she was promoted to the first officer rank by a special order of Kerensky), an excited Maria stood: “I thought that all eyes were fixed on me alone. Archbishop Veniamin of Petrograd and Archbishop of Ufa admonished our battalion of death with the image of the Mother of God of Tikhvin. It's done, the front is ahead! Finally, the battalion marched solemnly through the streets of Petrograd, where it was greeted by thousands of people, although insulting cries were heard in the crowd.
On June 23, an unusual military unit went to the front. Life immediately dispelled romance. Initially, the battalion barracks even had to put sentries: the revolutionary soldiers molested the "women" with unequivocal proposals. The battalion received its baptism of fire in fierce battles with the Germans near Smorgon in early July 1917. One of the reports from the command said that "the detachment of Bochkareva behaved heroically in battle", set an example of "bravery, courage and calmness." And even one of the leaders white movement General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, who was very skeptical of such "surrogates of the army", admitted that the women's battalion "valiantly went on the attack", not supported by other units.
In one of the battles on July 9, Bochkareva was shell-shocked and sent to the Petrograd hospital. After her recovery, she received an order from the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Lavr Kornilov, to review the women's battalions, which numbered almost a dozen. The review of the Moscow battalion showed its complete incompetence. Frustrated, Maria returned to her unit, firmly deciding for herself "not to take more women to the front, because I was disappointed in women."
After the October Revolution, Bochkareva, at the direction of the Soviet government, was forced to disperse her battalion home, and she herself again went to Petrograd. In Smolny, one of the representatives of the new regime (she herself claimed that it was Lenin or Trotsky) convinced Maria for a long time that she should stand up for the power of the working people. But Bochkareva stubbornly insisted that she was too exhausted and did not want to take part in the civil war. Almost the same - “I don’t accept military affairs during the civil war,” she told the White Guard commander in the North of Russia, General Marushevsky, a year later, when he tried to force Maria to form combat units. For the refusal, the angry general ordered the arrest of Bochkareva, and only the intervention of the British allies stopped him ...
However, Bochkareva still sided with the Whites. On behalf of General Kornilov, she, with forged documents in the clothes of a sister of mercy, made her way through the engulfed civil war Russia, in order to make a propaganda trip to the USA and England in 1918. Later, already in the autumn of 1919, a meeting took place with another "supreme" - Admiral A. V. Kolchak. Aged and exhausted by her wanderings, Maria Leontyevna came to ask for her resignation, but he persuaded Bochkareva to continue her service and form a voluntary sanitary detachment. Maria delivered impassioned speeches in two Omsk theaters and recruited 200 volunteers in two days. But the days of the “Supreme Ruler of Russia” himself and his army were already numbered. Bochkareva's detachment turned out to be of no use to anyone.
When the Red Army occupied Tomsk, Bochkareva herself appeared to the commandant of the city, handed over a revolver to him and offered her cooperation to the Soviet government. The commandant took from her a written undertaking not to leave and let her go home. On Christmas night 1920, she was arrested and then sent to Krasnoyarsk. Bochkareva gave frank and ingenuous answers to all the questions of the investigator, which put the Chekists in a difficult position. No clear evidence of her "counter-revolutionary activities" could be found; Bochkareva also did not participate in hostilities against the Reds. Ultimately, the special department of the 5th Army issued a decision: "For more information, the case, together with the identity of the accused, should be sent to the Special Department of the Cheka in Moscow."
Perhaps this promised a favorable outcome as a result, especially since the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars abolished the death penalty in the RSFSR once again. But, unfortunately, here in Siberia arrived the deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka, IP Pavlunovsky, endowed with emergency powers. The "representative of Moscow" did not understand what confused the local security officers in the case of our heroine. On the resolution, he wrote a brief resolution: "Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna - to be shot." On May 16, 1920, the sentence was carried out. "Russian Jeanne d, Arc" was the thirty-first year.
Women and war - this combination of the incongruous was born at the very end old Russia. The purpose of creating women's death battalions was to raise the patriotic spirit of the army and to shame the male soldiers who refuse to fight by their own example.
The initiator of the creation of the first women's battalion was the senior non-commissioned officer Maria Leontyevna Bochkareva, holder of the St. George Cross and one of the first Russian female officers. Maria was born in July 1889 in a peasant family. In 1905, she married 23-year-old Afanasy Bochkarev. Married life almost immediately went wrong, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunken husband without regret.
August 1, 1914 Russia entered into world war. The country was seized by a patriotic upsurge, and Maria Bochkareva decided to go as a soldier in the army. In November 1914, in Tomsk, she turned to the commander of the 25th reserve battalion with a request to enlist her in the regular army. He invites her to go to the front as a sister of mercy, but Maria insists on her own. An annoying petitioner is given ironic advice - to turn directly to the emperor. For the last eight rubles, Bochkareva sends a telegram to the highest name and soon, to her great surprise, receives a positive answer. She was enlisted as a civilian soldier. Maria fearlessly went into bayonet attacks, pulled the wounded from the battlefield, was wounded several times. "For outstanding valor" she received the George Cross and three medals. Soon she was awarded the rank of junior, and then senior non-commissioned officer.
Maria Bochkareva
After the fall of the monarchy, Maria Bochkareva initiated the formation of women's battalions. Enlisting the support of the Provisional Government, she spoke at the Tauride Palace with a call for the creation of women's battalions to defend the Fatherland. Soon her appeal was printed in the newspapers, and the whole country learned about the women's teams. On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony was held to present a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first women's military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." On the left flank of the detachment, in a brand new ensign uniform, stood an excited Maria: “I thought that all eyes were fixed on me alone. Archbishop Veniamin of Petrograd and Archbishop of Ufa admonished our battalion of death with the image of the Mother of God of Tikhvin. It's done, the front is ahead!
Women's death battalion goes to the front in World War I
Finally, the battalion marched solemnly through the streets of Petrograd, where it was greeted by thousands of people. On June 23, an unusual military unit went to the front, to the Novospassky forest area, north of the city of Molodechno, near Smorgon (Belarus). On July 9, 1917, according to the plans of the Headquarters, the Western Front was to go on the offensive. On July 7, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock women, received an order to take up positions at the front near the town of Krevo.
"Death Battalion" was on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, 1917, he entered the battle for the first time, since the enemy, knowing about the plans of the Russian command, launched a preemptive strike and wedged into the location of the Russian troops. For three days, the regiment repelled 14 attacks by German troops. Several times the battalion launched counterattacks and drove the Germans out of the Russian positions occupied the day before. Many commanders noted the desperate heroism of the women's battalion on the battlefield. So Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky, in his report on the actions of the “death battalion”, wrote: “The Bochkareva detachment behaved heroically in battle, all the time in the front line, serving along with the soldiers. During the attack of the Germans, on his own initiative, he rushed as one in a counterattack; brought cartridges, went into secrets, and some went into reconnaissance; With their work, the death team set an example of courage, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes is worthy of the title of a warrior of the Russian revolutionary army. Even General Anton Denikin, the future leader of the White movement, who was very skeptical of such "surrogates of the army", recognized the outstanding prowess of female soldiers. He wrote: “The women's battalion, attached to one of the corps, valiantly went on the attack, not supported by the “Russian heroes”. And when the pitch hell of enemy artillery fire broke out, the poor women, forgetting the technique of loose fighting, huddled together - helpless, lonely in their area of the field, loosened by German bombs. They suffered losses. And the "heroes" partly returned back, partly did not leave the trenches at all.
Bochkareva is the first on the left.
There were 6 nurses, formerly actual doctors, factory workers, employees and peasants who also came to die for their country.One of the girls was only 15 years old. Her father and two brothers died at the front, and her mother was killed when she worked in a hospital and came under fire. At the age of 15, they could only take a rifle in their hands and join the battalion. She thought she was safe here.
According to Bochkareva herself, out of 170 people who participated in the hostilities, the battalion lost up to 30 people killed and up to 70 wounded. Maria Bochkareva, herself wounded in this battle for the fifth time, spent a month and a half in the hospital and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. After her recovery, she received an order from the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Lavr Kornilov, to review the women's battalions, which numbered almost a dozen.
After the October Revolution, Bochkareva was forced to disband her battalion home, and she again went to Petrograd. In winter, she was detained by the Bolsheviks on the way to Tomsk. After refusing to cooperate with the new authorities, she was accused of counter-revolutionary activities, and the case almost went to the tribunal. Thanks to the help of one of her former colleagues, Bochkareva broke free and, dressed in the outfit of a sister of mercy, traveled the whole country to Vladivostok, from where she sailed on a campaign trip to the USA and Europe. The American journalist Isaac Don Levin, based on the stories of Bochkareva, wrote a book about her life, which was published in 1919 under the title "Yashka" and was translated into several languages. In August 1918 Bochkareva returned to Russia. In 1919 she went to Omsk to Kolchak. Aged and exhausted by her wanderings, Maria Leontievna came to ask for her resignation, but the Supreme Ruler persuaded Bochkareva to continue her service. Maria delivered impassioned speeches in two Omsk theaters and recruited 200 volunteers in two days. But the days of the Supreme Ruler of Russia and his army were already numbered. Bochkareva's detachment turned out to be of no use to anyone.
When the Red Army occupied Tomsk, Bochkareva herself came to the commandant of the city. The commandant took from her a written undertaking not to leave and let her go home. On January 7, 1920, she was arrested and then sent to Krasnoyarsk. Bochkareva gave frank and ingenuous answers to all the questions of the investigator, which put the Chekists in a difficult position. No clear evidence of her "counter-revolutionary activities" could be found; Bochkareva also did not participate in hostilities against the Reds. Ultimately, the special department of the 5th Army issued a decision: "For more information, the case, along with the identity of the accused, should be sent to the Special Department of the Cheka in Moscow."
Perhaps this promised a favorable outcome as a result, especially since the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars abolished the death penalty in the RSFSR once again. But, unfortunately, the deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka, I.P., arrived in Siberia. Pavlunovsky, endowed with emergency powers. The "representative of Moscow" did not understand what confused the local Chekists in the case of Maria Leontievna. On the resolution, he wrote a brief resolution: "Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna - to be shot." On May 16, 1920, the sentence was carried out. On the cover of the criminal case, the executioner made an inscription in blue pencil: “Lent fulfilled. 16th of May". But in the conclusion of the Russian prosecutor's office on the rehabilitation of Bochkareva in 1992, it is said that there is no evidence of her execution. Russian biographer Bochkareva S.V. Drokov believes that she was not shot: Isaac Don Levin rescued her from the Krasnoyarsk dungeons, and together with him she went to Harbin. Having changed her last name, Bochkareva lived on the CER until 1927, until she shared the fate of Russian families forcibly deported to Soviet Russia.
In the autumn of 1917, there were about 5,000 female warriors in Russia. Their physical strength and abilities were similar to all women, ordinary women. There was nothing special about them. They just had to learn how to shoot and kill. Women trained 10 hours a day. Former peasants made up 40% of the battalion.
Women's Death Battalion soldiers receive a blessing before being sent into battle, 1917.
Russian women's battalions could not go unnoticed in the world. Journalists (such as Bessie Beatty, Rita Dorr and Louise Bryant from America) would interview women and take pictures of them to later publish a book.
Female soldiers of the 1st Russian female death battalion, 1917
Maria Bochkareva and her Women's Battalion
Women's battalion from Petrograd. Drink tea and relax in the field camp.
Maria Bochkareva with Emmeline Pankhurst
Women's Battalion of Death" in Tsarskoye Selo.
Maria Bochkareva in the center, teaching shooting.
female recruits in Petrograd in 1917
Death battalion, soldier on duty, Petrograd, 1917.
Drink tea. Petrograd 1917
These girls defended the Winter Palace.
1st Petrograd Women's Battalion
Commander of the Petrograd Military District, General Polovtsev and Maria Bochkareva in front of the formation of the women's battalion
Bochkareva Maria Leontievna (née Frolkova, July 1889 - May 1920) - often considered the first Russian female officer (produced during the 1917 revolution). Bochkareva created the first female battalion in the history of the Russian army. Cavalier of the George Cross.
In July 1889, the third child, daughter Marusya, was born to the peasants of the village of Nikolskoye, Kirillovsky district, Novgorod province, Leonty Semenovich and Olga Eleazarovna Frolkov. Soon the family, fleeing poverty, moved to Siberia, where the government promised the settlers large plots of land and financial support. But, apparently, it was not possible to get away from poverty here either. At the age of fifteen, Mary was married. The following entry was preserved in the book of the Resurrection Church dated January 22, 1905: “Afanasy Sergeevich Bochkarev, 23 years old, of the Orthodox faith, living in the Tomsk province, Tomsk district of the Semiluk volost of the village of Bolshoe Kuskovo, married the maiden Maria Leontievna Frolkova, of the Orthodox faith…” . They settled in Tomsk. Married life went wrong almost immediately, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunken husband without regret. Maria left him for the butcher Yakov Buk. In May 1912, Buk was arrested on charges of robbery and sent to serve his sentence in Yakutsk. Bochkareva followed him on foot to Eastern Siberia, where they opened a butcher's shop for cover, although in reality Buk hunted in a gang of hunghuz. Soon the police came on the trail of the gang, and Buk was transferred to a settlement in the taiga village of Amga. 
Although Bochkareva again followed in his footsteps, her betrothed took to drink and began to engage in assault. At this time the First World War broke out. Bochkareva decided to join the ranks of the army and, having parted with her Yashka, arrived in Tomsk. The military refused to enroll the girl in the 24th reserve battalion and advised her to go to the front as a nurse. Then Bochkareva sent a telegram to the tsar, which was unexpectedly followed by a positive response. So she got to the front.
At first, a woman in uniform caused ridicule and harassment by her colleagues, but her courage in battle brought her universal respect, the St. George Cross and three medals. In those years, she was given the nickname "Yashka", in memory of her unlucky life partner. After two wounds and countless battles, Bochkareva was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer. 
In 1917, Kerensky turned to Bochkareva with a request to organize a "women's death battalion"; his wife and St. Petersburg institutes were involved in the patriotic project, with a total number of up to 2000 people. In an unusual military unit, iron discipline reigned: subordinates complained to their superiors that Bochkareva "beats their faces like a real wahmister of the old regime." Not many survived such treatment: in a short time, the number of female volunteers was reduced to three hundred. The rest separated into a special women's battalion that defended the Winter Palace during the October Revolution.
In the summer of 1917, Bochkareva's detachment distinguished itself at Smorgon; his steadfastness made an indelible impression on the command (Anton Denikin). After the shell shock received in that battle, warrant officer Bochkareva was sent to the Petrograd hospital for recovery, and in the capital she received the rank of second lieutenant, but soon after returning to her position she had to disband the battalion, due to the actual collapse of the front and the October Revolution.
Maria Bochkareva among the defenders of Petrograd
In winter, she was detained by the Bolsheviks on the way to Tomsk. After refusing to cooperate with the new authorities, she was accused of having relations with General Kornilov, the matter almost went to the tribunal. Thanks to the help of one of her former colleagues, Bochkareva broke free and, dressed in the outfit of a sister of mercy, traveled the whole country to Vladivostok, from where she sailed on a campaign trip to the USA and Europe. 
In April 1918, Bochkareva arrived in San Francisco. With the support of the influential and wealthy Florence Harriman, the daughter of a Russian peasant crossed the United States and was awarded an audience with President Woodrow Wilson at the White House on July 10. According to eyewitnesses, Bochkareva's story about her dramatic fate and pleas for help against the Bolsheviks moved the president to tears.
Maria Bochkareva, Emmeline Pankhurst (British public and political figure, women's rights activist, leader of the British suffragette movement) and a woman from the Women's Battalion, 1917. 
Maria Bochkareva and Emmeline Pankhurst
Journalist Isaac Don Levin, based on the stories of Bochkareva, wrote a book about her life, which was published in 1919 under the title "Yashka" and was translated into several languages.
After visiting London, where she met with King George V and secured his financial support, Bochkareva arrived in Arkhangelsk in August 1918. She hoped to raise local women to fight the Bolsheviks, but things went badly. General Marushevsky, in an order dated December 27, 1918, announced that the conscription of women for unsuitable military service would be a disgrace to the population of the Northern Region, and forbade Bochkareva to wear an officer's uniform self-appointed to her.
The following year, she was already in Tomsk under the banner of Admiral Kolchak, trying to put together a battalion of nurses. She regarded Kolchak's flight from Omsk as a betrayal, voluntarily appeared before the local authorities, who took a written undertaking not to leave her.
Siberian period (19th year, on the Kolchak fronts...)
A few days later, during a church service, 31-year-old Bochkareva was taken into custody by security officers. Clear evidence of her betrayal or collaboration with the whites could not be found, and the proceedings dragged on for four months. According to the Soviet version, on May 16, 1920, she was shot in Krasnoyarsk on the basis of the resolution of the head of the Special Department of the Cheka of the 5th Army, Ivan Pavlunovsky, and his deputy Shimanovsky. But in the conclusion of the Russian prosecutor's office on the rehabilitation of Bochkareva in 1992, it is said that there is no evidence of her execution.
Women's battalions
M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a propaganda trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, specifically asked to meet with her and took her with him to Petrograd to agitate the "war to a victorious end" in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the congress of soldiers deputies of the Petrosoviet. In a speech to the delegates of the congress, Bochkareva for the first time voiced her idea of \u200b\u200bcreating shock women's "death battalions". After that, she was invited to a meeting of the Provisional Government to repeat her proposal.
“I was told that my idea was excellent, but I need to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. Together with Rodzyanka, I went to Brusilov’s Headquarters. Brusilov told me in the office that you rely on women, and that the formation of a women’s battalion is the first in the world. Can't women dishonor Russia? I told Brusilov that I myself am not sure about women, but if you give me full authority, then I guarantee that my battalion will not dishonor Russia. Brusilov told me that he believes me, and will do her best to help in the formation of the women's volunteer battalion."
Battalion recruits
On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony was held to present a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first women's military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." On June 29, the Military Council approved the regulation "On the formation of military units from female volunteers." 
“Kerensky listened with obvious impatience. It was obvious that he had already made a decision on this matter. He had only one doubt: whether I could maintain high morale and morality in this battalion. Kerensky said that he would allow me to begin formation immediately<�…>When Kerensky escorted me to the door, his eyes rested on General Polovtsev. He asked him to give me any help needed. I almost suffocated with happiness."
The commander of the Petrograd Military District, General P. A. Polovtsov, conducts a review of the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion. Summer 1917 
First of all, front-line soldiers, who were still in the imperial army, some of them were Knights of St. George, and women from civil society - noblewomen, students, teachers, workers - were recorded in the ranks of the "shocks". The percentage of soldiers and Cossacks was large: 38. In the battalion of Bochkareva, both girls of many famous noble families of Russia, as well as simple peasant women and servants were represented. Maria N. Skrydlova, the daughter of the admiral, served as Bochkareva's adjutant. By nationality, the volunteers were mostly Russian, but there were also other nationalities - Estonians, Latvians, Jews, and an Englishwoman. The number of women's formations ranged from 250 to 1500 fighters each. The formation took place exclusively on a voluntary basis. 
The appearance of the Bochkareva detachment served as an impetus for the formation of women's detachments in other cities of the country (Kyiv, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to the intensifying processes of the destruction of the entire state, the creation of these women's shock parts were never completed.
Recruit training
Women's Battalion. Camp life training.
At the training camp in Levashevo
Mounted scouts of the Women's Battalion
Volunteers during rest hours
Officially, as of October 1917, there were: 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion (infantry); Maritime women's team (Oranienbaum); Cavalry 1st Petrograd Battalion of the Women's Military Union; Minsk separate guard squad of female volunteers. The first three battalions visited the front, only the 1st battalion of Bochkareva was in the battles
The mass of soldiers and the Soviets perceived the "women's battalions of death" (however, like all other "shock units") "with hostility." Front-line shock workers were not called anything other than prostitutes. In early July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded the disbandment of all "women's battalions", both because they were "unsuitable for military service" and because the formation of such battalions "is a covert maneuver of the bourgeoisie that wants to wage war to a victorious end"
Solemn farewell to the front of the First Women's Battalion. A photo. Moscow Red Square. summer 1917
On June 27, the "death battalion" consisting of two hundred volunteers arrived in the active army - in the rear units of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army of the Western Front in the area of the city of Molodechno. On July 7, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock women, received an order to take up positions at the front near the town of Krevo. The "death battalion" took up positions on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, the first battle of the Bochkareva battalion took place. In the bloody battles that lasted until July 10, 170 women participated. The regiment repelled 14 German attacks. Volunteers went on the counterattack several times. Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in a report about the action of the "death battalion":
The detachment of Bochkareva behaved heroically in battle, all the time in the front line, serving on a par with the soldiers. During the attack of the Germans, on his own initiative, he rushed as one in a counterattack; brought cartridges, went into secrets, and some went into reconnaissance; with their work, the death team set an example of courage, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes was worthy of the title of a warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.
Private of the Women's Battalion Pelageya Saygin
The battalion lost 30 men killed and 70 wounded. Maria Bochkareva, herself wounded in this battle for the fifth time, spent 1½ months in the hospital and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.
In hospital
Such heavy losses of volunteers had other consequences for the women's battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief L. G. Kornilov, by his Order, prohibited the creation of new women's "death battalions" for combat use, and the already created units were ordered to be used only in auxiliary sectors (security functions, communications , sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with weapons in their hands wrote statements asking them to be fired from the "parts of death"
One of the women's death battalions (1st Petrograd, under the command of the Life Guards of the Keksholmsky Regiment: 39 Staff Captain A. V. Loskov), together with cadets and other units loyal to the oath, took part in the defense of the Winter Palace in October 1917. where the Provisional Government was located.
On November 7, the battalion stationed near the Levashovo station of the Finnish Railway was supposed to go to the Romanian Front (according to the plans of the command, it was supposed to send each of the formed women's battalions to the front to raise the morale of male soldiers - one for each of the four fronts of the Eastern Front) .
1st Petrograd Women's Battalion
But on November 6, the battalion commander Loskov received an order to send the battalion to Petrograd "for the parade" (in fact, to protect the Provisional Government). Loskov, having learned about the real task, not wanting to involve volunteers in a political confrontation, withdrew the entire battalion from Petrograd back to Levashovo, with the exception of the 2nd company (137 people).
2nd company of the 1st Petrograd women's battalion
The headquarters of the Petrograd Military District tried, with the help of two platoons of volunteers and units of cadets, to ensure the wiring of the Nikolaevsky, Palace and Liteiny bridges, but the Sovietized sailors frustrated this task.
Volunteers on the square in front of the Winter Palace. November 7, 1917
The company took up defense on the first floor of the Winter Palace in the area to the right of the main gate to Millionnaya Street. At night, during the storming of the palace by the revolutionaries, the company surrendered, was disarmed and taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier Regiment, where some shock women were “mistreated” - as a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma established, three shock women were raped (although, perhaps, few dared to admit it), one committed suicide. On November 8, the company was sent to the place of its former deployment in Levashovo.
After the October Revolution, the Bolshevik government, which had set a course for the complete collapse of the army, for immediate defeat in the war and for the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany, was not interested in preserving the "shock units". On November 30, 1917, the Military Council of the still old War Ministry issued an order to disband the "women's death battalions". Shortly before this, on November 19, by order of the Military Ministry, all female soldiers were promoted to officers, "for military merit." However, many volunteers remained in their units until January 1918 and beyond. Some of them moved to the Don and took part in the fight against Bolshevism in the ranks of the White movement.
Women's Death Battalion 1917