Life in permafrost

The death battalion was commanded by an officer of the Russian army, Maria Bochkareva, a woman with a unique destiny. She was born in 1889, in an ordinary peasant family. A poor and large family lived in the Novgorod province, and then moved to Siberia. But even in new places, Maria's parents did not find happiness and wealth.

From an early age, the girl was forced to labor for the sake of an extra penny. At the age of 16, Maria married a peasant Afanasy Bochkarev, but her husband turned out to be a drunkard, he did not know how to manage and earn a living and loved. And as is often the case with Russian women, Maria was forced to take on the role of a breadwinner and breadwinner. A young woman went to work on the construction of the railway, as a laborer.

They paid her a little there, but even these pennies were taken away by the husband and drunk away, and in addition, he also beat his wife. Maria could not stand such a life for a long time and fled. Soon she met the owner of a butcher's shop, Yakov Buk, with whom she had a stormy romance. But it turned out that Yakov is a real bandit, the head of a gang of thieves. Soon he was arrested and sent by stage to Yakutsk, to an eternal settlement. Faithful in love Maria followed him, taking on all the hardships of everyday life in a new undeveloped place. But here Yakov also managed to "distinguish himself" and was first imprisoned, and then sent to a remote taiga village. Maria again went after him, although for a long time she had seen only beatings and insults from her "cavalier". Most likely, this was the reason for her decisive act - flight into the army.

In 1914, the news reached the northern wilderness with a great delay that the war with the Germans had begun. Bochkareva, without hesitation, packed up and left the disgusted Yakov for Tomsk. There she found the commander of the reserve battalion and demanded that he "register her as a soldier" and send her to the front. At first, the commander did not even listen to her, but Maria began her own military operations against him - she lay in wait in ambushes, begged, persuaded, sobbed. Nevertheless, although her desire already aroused sympathy among those around her, no one was going to take her to the front. Then Bochkareva took a desperate step - she sent a telegram to St. Petersburg addressed to the emperor, in which she asked to be allowed to serve for the glory of the Fatherland.

And soon a message came to Tomsk from ... Nicholas II. He expressed his approval and ordered the woman to be enlisted in the regiment. After the highest order, Maria Bochkareva was accepted into the army. At first, a short study in the rear followed, and in the spring of 1915, Maria ended up at war.

If up to this point it was possible to say that Bochkareva’s desire to be at the front was some kind of whim or a desire to escape from the hateful and hopeless reality, then her actions on the front line showed that she was actually a very brave woman and a real fighter. She boldly went on the attack and reconnaissance, was in no way inferior to men, was somewhat wounded, but always returned to duty. By 1917, she had already become a full Knight of St. George and received a promotion.

Naturally, a lot was said about the amazing woman-hero at the fronts and written in newspapers. Soon she became a very popular person, the mascot of the Russian army. At the same time, her multi-membered correspondents were struck by her wise worldly views, wit and lively language.

Woman with a rifle

Meanwhile, serious social and political changes were approaching Russia, caused by the protracted war. The soldiers are tired of fighting, the peasants are tired of feeding the army. The crisis was resolved by the February Revolution. Maria Bochkareva was called to Petrograd as an expert on military issues. She, as a person who was intimately familiar with the subject, told the Provisional Government that morale in the units had fallen significantly and measures were needed to raise it.

It was then that it was decided to create a special women's battalion and send it to the front. Bochkareva was sure that the sight of weak women with rifles would inspire a demoralized army, and soldiers with renewed vigor would rush to fight the enemy, desertion and decay in the army would stop. But still, in the highest military circles, they doubted the success of such a bold experiment. General Brusilov asked Bochkareva: "Do you rely on women"? “I guarantee that my battalion will not disgrace Russia,” the female officer replied.

A call was made, and soon more than two thousand female volunteers were gathered. Among them, women were chosen not younger than 16 and not older than 40 years. Conscripts passed a medical examination, which weeded out the sick and pregnant.

Soon the first female death battalion was formed. Appeals and slogans appeared in the newspapers: “Not a single nation in the world has reached such a shame that instead of male deserters, weak women went to the front. The female army will be that living water that will make the Russian hero wake up.

Although the ladies who gathered for the war did not expect an easy life for themselves and were ready for hardships and hardships, nevertheless, the creation of the regiment was not without scandals associated with the service. There were complaints about the battalion commander - in connection with her cruelty and assault. Female soldiers claimed that Bochkareva "beats the faces like a real sergeant major of the old regime."

When they tried to influence the battalion commander, she replied that "the dissatisfied can go to hell." The dissatisfied really "got away" and ended up in another women's battalion, whose fate turned out to be terrible. It was he who guarded the Winter Palace on the fateful night of the October Revolution. Women were raped and killed...

But that will happen later. In the meantime, those who remained with Bochkareva were going to the front. After the split, the battalion became much calmer, and legends circulated about the iron discipline that reigned in it. Before being sent to the front, the banner was solemnly presented to the battalion on St. Isaac's Square. The ceremony was attended by Kerensky and other representatives of the Provisional Government. The battalion was escorted to the front and began to expect news of the strengthening of the military spirit.

Shooting in the basement

But, alas, this did not happen. On July 9, 1917, the women's battalion launched its first attack. Although the women tried to show their military skills, they did not do it as well as they would like, and the battalion suffered significant losses.

Denikin wrote in his memoirs: “I know the fate of the Bochkareva battalion. He was greeted by the unbridled soldier environment mockingly, cynically. In the town of Molodechno, where the battalion originally stood, at night it had to put up a strong guard to guard the barracks ... Then the offensive began.

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 about the technique of loose formation, 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 .... In the same battle, Maria Bochkareva was also wounded.

But the government decided to continue the experiment, and several more women's battalions were created. After returning from the hospital, Maria already commanded a regiment. But then the October Revolution took place, the regiment was disbanded, Bochkareva was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. She was offered to go over to the side of the Bolsheviks and fight the Whites, but she refused. At that time, the bloody terror was just beginning, the former tsarist officers had not yet been persecuted, and Bochkareva was soon released.

Maria decided to play on her side - by hook or by crook, she moved to the remaining territories of the Whites in the Volunteer Army. Soon, on the orders of General Kornilov, she went on a trip to the United States and England, where she met with Woodrow Wilson and the English king. The details of this trip are little known, its purpose was to ask for help from powerful allies. Returning to Russia, she ended up in Kolchak's army, but in November 1919, after the capture of Omsk by the Bolsheviks, she was arrested. The Chekists were engaged in her business for a long time, trying to find all connections with the White Guards. May 16, 1920 Maria Bochkareva was shot.

On August 31, the filming of the film "The Battalion of Death" began, telling the story of a women's battalion that fought on the fronts of the First World War. Filming will take place in the Northern capital, at the moment they are filming on Vasilkov Island.

So far, specific details about the plot of the picture have not been disclosed, however, it is known that director Dmitry Meskhiev intends to create antique stylization not only with scenery and costumes, but also with image quality. It is not yet clear what this means, but, as the director said, there will be neither black and white film nor 3D format.As the creators say, the film "Death Squadron" is "a film about the heroism of Russian women" ... And how can you not believe it now, when it is known that for the sake of the picture almost 60 girls shaved their heads, and actress Maria Kozhevnikova is at the head of all.In addition to Maria Kozhevnikova, such famous actors as Marat Basharov, Maria Aronova and Evgeny Dyatlov, Vladimir Zaitsev are attached to the project. The director asks the actor Nikolai Auzin, from Tyumen, to remember especially. The director is sure that he has discovered a new star.The Death Squad release date is August 2014. The filming process is scheduled until December 2013.Shaved imageMaria Kozhevnikova ...

Original taken from melena1001

On June 21, 1917, the Provisional Government issued an unusual order: on the initiative of the holder of the St. George Cross, Maria Bochkareva, a battalion, unprecedented in the Russian army, was created, which consisted entirely of women. She also led the new "army".

The glory of this woman during her lifetime - both in Russia and abroad - was not dreamed of by many modern "divas" from the world of show business. Reporters fought for the right to interview her, magazines published pictures of the female hero on the covers. Although Mary had neither beauty nor a mysterious love story.

However, the star of Maria Bochkareva burned brightly for only a few years. And then her life ended with an early and inglorious death.

Drunkard's wife, gangster's girlfriend, governor's mistress

Origin prepared for Mary an extremely unsightly and predictable fate: having been born in July 1889 in a poor peasant family, at the age of 16 she was married to Afanasia Bochkareva- a simple hard worker, eight years older than her. They lived in Tomsk; the newly-made husband suffered from alcoholism. And Maria, willy-nilly, began to look to the side.

Her gaze quickly fell on Yankel, or Jacob, Buk- a Jew who "officially" worked as a butcher, but in fact was a robbery in one of the Tomsk gangs. An affair began between them, but soon Yakov was arrested and sent along the stage to Yakutsk.

23-year-old Bochkareva decided to try the fate of the Decembrist on herself - and went after her beloved to the settlement. However, the dashing soul of Yankel did not allow him to live in peace there either: he started buying up stolen goods, and then, having sang with the same desperate ones, he launched an attack on the post office.

As a result, deportation to Kolymsk hung over Buk. The Yakut governor, however, did not refuse Mary, who asked for indulgence for her lover. But he also asked for something in return.

Bochkareva reluctantly agreed. But, having slept with an official, she felt such disgust for herself that she tried to poison herself. Yakov, having learned about what had happened, rushed to the governor and only miraculously did not solve the "seducer": they managed to twist him on the threshold of the office.

Mary's relationship with her lover crumbled to smithereens.

Unter Yashka

Who knows how it would have ended if on August 1, 1914 Russia had not entered the First World War. In the wake of the patriotic upsurge that swept the empire, the 25-year-old Bochkareva decided ... to break with the hateful "citizen" and join the soldiers.

Getting into the army, however, was not at all easy. At first, she was offered only to become a sister of mercy. And she wanted to fight for real. Jokingly or seriously, but the military gave her advice - to seek permission from the emperor himself NicholasII.

If Maria had a sense of humor, then she considered it inappropriate to apply it to this situation. Taking the last eight rubles she had left out of her pocket, Bochkareva went to the post office and sent a telegram to the highest name.

What was the general surprise when a positive answer soon came from St. Petersburg! Maria was enlisted as a civilian soldier.

To the questions of colleagues, what to call her, the woman began to answer: "Yashka." It must be admitted that in many pictures in uniform, Bochkareva is simply impossible to distinguish from a man.

Soon, the unit where Yashka was enrolled ended up at the front, and there Bochkareva was finally able to prove her worth. She fearlessly went into a bayonet attack, pulled the wounded from the battlefield and herself received several wounds. By 1917, she had risen to the rank of senior non-commissioned officer, and three medals and the St. George Cross flaunted on her chest.

However, to win the war, the efforts of one woman, although unusually strong in body and spirit, were not enough. Although the Provisional Government in February 17th started talking about “war to the bitter end,” the country was already in a pre-revolutionary fever, and the soldiers were tired of suffering defeat, rotting in the trenches and thinking about what was happening in their families. The army was falling apart before our eyes.

Death as a banner

The authorities frantically searched for a way to raise army morale. One of the leaders of the February Revolution Mikhail Rodzianko decided to go to the Western Front to agitate for the continuation of the war. But who will believe him, the “rear rat”, there? Whether it's a matter of taking Bochkareva with you, about which legends had already begun to circulate by that time and which was highly respected.

Arriving with Rodzianko in Petrograd, "unter Yashka" got to a meeting of the Congress of Soldiers' Deputies of the Petrosoviet, with whom she shared her idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating women's volunteer battalions. "Death Squads" - such a name was proposed for the units. Say, if women are not afraid to die on the battlefield, then what is left for male soldiers who are suddenly afraid of war?

Bochkareva's appeal was immediately published in the newspapers, and with the approval of the Supreme Commander Alexey Brusilov recruitment to women's army teams began across the country.

There were surprisingly many people who wanted to join the army among Russian women. Among the several thousand who signed up for the battalions were female students, teachers, hereditary Cossack women, and representatives of noble families.

For a whole month, “new conscripts” were plowed in at army exercises, and on June 21, 1917, a very solemn ceremony took place on the square near St. Isaac’s Cathedral in Petrograd: a banner was handed over to the new unit, on which was inscribed: “The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva.” After that, the battalion marched bravo through the city streets, where the soldiers were greeted by thousands of people.

The female face of war

Two days later, the unit went to Belarus, to the area of ​​​​the Novospassky forest near Smorgon. And already on July 8, 1917, the "death battalion" entered the battle for the first time: the Germans wedged into the location of the Russian troops. For three days, Bochkareva and her colleagues repelled 14 enemy attacks.

Colonel Vladimir Zakrzhevsky later reported on the heroic behavior of the girls in battle and that they really set an example for others not only of courage, but also of calmness.

But the battalions of "Russian heroes" surrounding the women's team, in the words of the general Anton Denikin, at that moment they became frightened, gave up slack and were unable to support the fiery impulse of the soldiers. “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,” the general later recalled. - We suffered losses. And the “heroes” partly returned back, partly did not leave the trenches at all.

Needless to say, this behavior of male soldiers led Bochkarev into an indescribable rage. Of the 170 members of her battalion, in the very first days of the fight with the enemy, 30 people were killed, more than 70 were wounded. The anger of the battalion commander was looking for an opportunity to fall on someone's head. And found.

Soon she came across a couple who hid behind a tree trunk for purely intimate purposes. Bochkareva was so enraged that she pierced the “girl” with a bayonet without hesitation. And the unfortunate lover cowardly ran away ...

White Music Revolutions

Three months later, the October Revolution broke out. Upon learning of him, Bochkareva was forced to dismiss the surviving subordinates home, and she herself went to Petrograd.

She was sure that the revolution "will lead Russia not to happiness, but to destruction", and that she was not on the way with the Reds. There was only one way out: to bet on the Whites and support them in every possible way.

In 1918, on behalf of General Lavra Kornilova left Vladivostok on a campaign tour of England and the United States. Her task was to attract Western politicians to help the White movement. In the US, she met with the President Woodrow Wilson, in Britain - with the king George V.

Returning to Russia, she went to Siberia - to the admiral Alexander Kolchak, who proposed to repeat the experience with the death battalion and form a women's military sanitary detachment under the leadership of Bochkareva. "Yashka" began work, but the team she assembled turned out to be of no use to anyone: Kolchak's days were already numbered.

Left without a single thing that she knew how to do well, Maria gave up and took to drink. From time to time, she appeared at Kolchak's headquarters with demands to officially dismiss her with the right to wear a uniform and give her the rank of staff captain.

When the Reds took Tomsk, Bochkareva voluntarily came to the city commandant, handed over her weapons and offered cooperation to the Soviet government. At first, they took a written undertaking not to leave her and let her go home, but later, in early 1920, they arrested her.

The investigation could not prove her participation in "counter-revolutionary activities", so the special department of the 5th Army wanted to transfer the case of Bochkareva to the Moscow Special Department of the Cheka. But to Maria's misfortune, the deputy head of the Special Department just arrived in Siberia at that time, Ivan Pavlunovskiy. He did not understand what could confuse the local Chekists in the history of the famous soldier, and drew a brief resolution on her deed: "Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna - shoot."

On May 16, 1920, according to official figures, the sentence was carried out. A postscript about this is also preserved on the cover of the case.

Maria Leontievna was rehabilitated in 1992. At the same time, the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation unexpectedly announced that there was no evidence of the execution of a woman in the archives.

Some historians believe that the former commander of the death battalion could still escape in 1920: having escaped from the Krasnoyarsk dungeons, she went to Chinese Harbin on false documents, changed her first and last name and settled somewhere in the vicinity of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER ). In the late 1920s, however, she could be forcibly deported to the USSR, like some other immigrants from Russia. Whether it was so or not - unfortunately, we are unlikely to ever know for sure.

Women and war - this combination of the incompatible was born at the very end of 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.

On August 1, 1914, Russia entered the 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 response. 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, 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, 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 women's battalion

Women's battalions- military formations consisting exclusively of women, created by the Provisional Government, mainly for the propaganda purpose - to raise the patriotic mood in the army and to shame the male soldiers who refuse to fight by their own example. Despite this, they participated in the hostilities of the First World War to a limited extent. One of the initiators of their creation was Maria Bochkareva.

History of occurrence

Senior non-commissioned officer M. L. Bochkareva, who was at the front with the highest permission (since women were forbidden to be sent to units of the army in the field) from 1914 to 1917, thanks to her heroism, became a famous person. M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a campaign trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, specifically asked to meet with her and took her with him to Petrograd to campaign for the "war to a victorious end" in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the congress delegates soldier's deputies of the Petrosoviet. In a speech to the delegates of the congress, Bochkareva spoke for the first time about the creation of shock women's "death battalions". After that, she was invited to present her proposal at a meeting of the Provisional Government.

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 his office that you rely on women and that the formation of a women's battalion is the first in the world. Can't women shame 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 disgrace Russia ... Brusilov told me that he trusts me and will do his best to help in the formation of a women's volunteer battalion .

M. L. Bochkareva

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 Russian state, the creation of these women's drums parts were never completed.

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 participated in the hostilities.

Attitude towards women's battalions

As the Russian historian S. A. Solntseva wrote, the mass of soldiers and the Soviets took the “women's death battalions” (however, like all other shock units) “with hostility”. Front-line shock workers did not call them anything other than "prostitutes". In early July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded that all "women's battalions" be disbanded as "unsuitable for military service" - in addition, the formation of such battalions was regarded by the Petrograd Soviet as "a covert maneuver of the bourgeoisie, wishing to wage war to a victorious end" .

Let's pay tribute to the memory of the brave. But ... there is no place for a woman on the fields of death, where horror reigns, where there is blood, dirt and deprivation, where hearts harden and morals terribly coarsen. There are many ways of public and state service that are much more in line with the vocation of a woman.

Participation in the battles of the First World War

On June 27, 1917, the "battalion of death" consisting of two hundred people 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 Novospassky Forest area, north of the city of Molodechno, near Smorgon.

On July 9, 1917, according to the plans of the Stavka, the Western Front was to go on the offensive. On July 7, 1917, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock women, was ordered to take 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. Here is what Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in his report on the actions 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.

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.

Such heavy losses among female volunteers also had other consequences for the women's battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief, General L. G. Kornilov, by his order forbade 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 female volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with weapons in their hands wrote statements asking them to be fired from the "parts of death".

Defense of the Provisional Government

One of the women's death battalions (1st Petrograd, under the command of the Life Guards of the Keksholm Regiment: 39 Staff Captain A. V. Loskov) in October, together with the junkers and other units loyal to the Februaryists, took part in the defense of the Winter Palace , which housed the Provisional Government.

On October 25 (November 7), the battalion, stationed in the area of ​​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). But on October 24 (November 6), the battalion commander, staff captain 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 and not wanting to draw his subordinates into a political confrontation, withdrew the entire battalion from Petrograd back to Levashovo, with the exception of the 2nd company (137 people).

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 assault on the palace, the company surrendered, was disarmed and taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier regiment, where, with some shock women "treated badly"- as a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma established, three shock girls were raped (although, perhaps, few dared to admit it), one committed suicide. On October 26 (November 8), the company was sent to its former location in Levashovo.

Liquidation of women's death battalions

Form and appearance

The soldiers of the Women's Battalion of Bochkareva wore the symbol of "Adam's head" on their chevrons. Women passed a medical examination and cut their hair almost bald.

Songs

March forward, forward to fight
Soldier women!
The dashing sound calls you to battle,
The adversaries will shudder
From the song of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion

In culture

Writer Boris Akunin wrote the detective story "Battalion" of Angels, which takes place in 1917 in the women's death battalion. Of the real prototypes, the book shows the daughter of Admiral Skrydlov (under the name of Alexander Shatskaya) and Maria Bochkareva.

In February 2015, the Russian feature film "

In different historical epochs and in different parts of the world, when the ranks of men were greatly thinned due to constant wars, women created their own combat units. In Russia, during the First World War, the so-called women's death battalions also appeared. At the head of the first such unit was Maria Bochkareva, one of the most unfortunate and extraordinary women of that difficult time.

How was the life of the future heroine

Maria Leontyevna Frolkova was born in 1889 in the Novgorod region into a very poor peasant family. When Marusa was six years old, the family moved to Tomsk in search of a better life, as the government promised considerable benefits to the settlers in Siberia. But the hopes were not justified. At the age of 8, the girl was given "to the people." Marusya worked from morning to night, endured constant hunger and beatings.

In her early youth, Maria met Lieutenant Vasily Lazov. In an effort to escape from the hopeless situation surrounding her, the girl fled with him from her parents' house. However, the lieutenant disgraced her and abandoned her. After returning home, Maria was so severely beaten by her father that she received a concussion. Then, at the age of 15, Maria was married to a veteran of the Japanese war, Afanasy Bochkarev. The marriage was unsuccessful: the husband drank heavily and beat his young wife. Maria tried to escape from him and somehow settle in life, but her husband found her, returned her home, and everything continued as before. The girl repeatedly tried to commit suicide. The last time she was saved by the robber and gambler Yankel Buk, who is part of the international hunghuz gang. He didn't let her drink a glass of vinegar. Mary became his partner.

After some time, Yankel Buk was caught and exiled. Bochkareva followed him into exile. But there he began to drink and engage in assault. There is evidence that once Buk, suspecting his girlfriend of treason, tried to hang her. Maria realized that she had fallen into another trap, and her active nature began to look for a way out. She went to the police station, where she spoke about the many unsolved crimes of her partner. However, this act only worsened her situation.

When the First World War began, Bochkareva turned to the commander of the Tomsk battalion with a request to enlist her in the soldiers. The commander laughed it off and advised her to turn to the emperor himself. However, the existence of Mary was so terrible that she really decided to take this step: she found a person who helped her compose and send a telegram to Nicholas II, in which she asked to enlist her in the army. Apparently, the telegram was written by a professional, because the tsar agreed to such a violation of army discipline.

Life among soldiers and participation in battles

When Maria Bochkareva got to the front, fellow soldiers took her ironically. Her military nickname was "Yashka", after the name of her second husband. Maria recalled that she spent the first night in the barracks, handing out cuffs to her comrades-in-arms. She tried to visit not a soldier's bath, but a city one, where they threw something heavy at her from the threshold, mistaking her for a man. Later, Maria began to wash with her squad, occupying the far corner, turning her back and threatening to scald in case of harassment. Soon the soldiers got used to her and stopped scoffing, recognizing her as "their own", sometimes even for a joke they took her with them to a brothel.

After all the ordeals, Maria had nothing to lose, but she got a chance to advance and improve her social status. She showed considerable courage in the battles and pulled fifty wounded out of the fire. She was wounded four times. Returning from the hospital, she met the most cordial welcome in the unit, probably for the first time in her life being in a benevolent environment. She was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer and awarded the George Cross and three medals.

First Women's Death Battalion

In 1917, Duma deputy Mikhail Rodzianko proposed the idea of ​​creating a women's military brigade. The front was falling apart, cases of flight from the battlefield and desertion were massive. Rodzianko hoped that the example of fearless patriotic women would inspire the soldiers and rally the Russian army.

Maria Bochkareva became the commander of the women's death battalion. More than 2000 women who wanted to defend the country with weapons in their hands responded to her call. Many of them were from among the romantic Petersburg institutes, carried away by patriotic ideas and absolutely unaware of real military life, but they willingly posed in front of photographers in a soldier's image. Bochkareva, seeing this, immediately demanded from her subordinates strict observance of her requirements: unquestioning obedience, no jewelry and a haircut. There were also complaints about the heavy hand of Maria, who could, in the best sergeant-major traditions, slap the face. Those dissatisfied with such orders were quickly weeded out, and 300 girls of various origins remained in the battalion: from those born in peasant families to noblewomen. Maria Skrydlova, the daughter of a famous admiral, became Bochkareva's adjutant. The national composition was different: Russians, Latvians, Estonians, Jews and even one Englishwoman.

The women's battalion was escorted to the front by about 25 thousand men of the St. Petersburg garrison, who themselves were in no hurry to expose their foreheads to a bullet. Alexander Kerensky personally presented the detachment with a banner on which was written: "The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." Their emblem was a skull and crossbones: not a pirate sign, but a symbol of Golgotha ​​and the atonement for the sins of mankind.

How women warriors were perceived

At the front, the girls had to fend off the soldiers: many took the female replenishment exclusively as legal prostitutes. The prostitutes accompanying the army often dressed in a semblance of a military uniform, so the girls' ammunition did not stop anyone. Their combat position was besieged by hundreds of fellow soldiers who had no doubt that an official brothel had arrived.

But that was before the first battles. Bochkareva's detachment arrived at Smorgon and on July 8, 1914, entered the battle for the first time. In three days, the women's death battalion repulsed 14 German attacks. Several times the girls went on counterattacks, engaged in hand-to-hand combat and knocked out the German units from their positions. Commander Anton Denikin was impressed by female heroism.

Rodzianko's calculations did not materialize: the male combat units continued to take cover in the trenches while the girls went on the attack. The battalion lost 30 fighters, about 70 were injured. Bochkareva herself was wounded for the fifth time and spent a month and a half in the hospital. She was promoted to second lieutenant, and the battalion withdrew to the rear. After the October Revolution, on the initiative of Bochkareva, her detachment was disbanded.

Alternate Institutional Battalion

Those girls who were weeded out by Bochkareva created the Petrograd Women's Battalion of Death. Here it was allowed to use cosmetics, wear elegant underwear and make beautiful hairstyles. The composition was fundamentally different: in addition to the romantic graduates of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, adventurers of various kinds, including prostitutes who decided to change their field of activity, joined the battalion. This second detachment, formed by the Women's Patriotic Union, was supposed to defend the Winter Palace in Petrograd. However, during the capture of Zimny ​​by the revolutionaries, this detachment did not resist: the girls were disarmed and sent to the barracks of the Pavlovsky regiment. The attitude towards them was exactly the same as initially towards the front-line girls. They were perceived exclusively as girls of easy virtue, they were treated without any respect, raped, and soon the Petrograd Women's Battalion was disbanded.

Refusal to cooperate with the Bolsheviks in favor of the Whites

After the October Revolution, Lenin and Trotsky considered Maria Bochkareva a suitable candidate to organize the Soviet women's movement. However, Maria refused, citing her unwillingness to continue to take part in the battles. She went over to the side of the White movement, but she really did not participate in the hostilities and made an attempt to go to her relatives in Tomsk. On the way, Bochkareva was captured by the Bolsheviks, from whom she managed to escape in the costume of a sister of mercy. Having reached Vladivostok, the Russian Amazon left for San Francisco. In America, she was supported by one of the leaders of the suffragette movement, the wealthy Florence Harriman. She organized a tour of Mary throughout the country with lectures. In 1918, Bochkareva was received by President Woodrow Wilson, whom she asked for help in the fight against the Bolsheviks. It is known that the head of the White House shed tears after the Russian Amazon told him about the vicissitudes of her plight.

Then Mary arrived in London and was honored to talk with King George. The latter promised her financial and military support. With the English military corps, she returned to her homeland. From Arkhangelsk, she went to the capital of the Whites, Omsk, joining the army of Alexander Kolchak, who invited her to form a women's detachment. This attempt was not successful. By the way, Kolchak, according to Maria, was too indecisive, as a result of which the Bolsheviks went on the offensive everywhere.

Riddles of an extraordinary fate

There are different versions about Mary's arrest. According to one of them, she voluntarily appeared in the Cheka and handed over her weapons. In any case, on January 7, 1920, she was arrested. The investigative process lasted several months, the court hesitated in making a decision. It is believed that on May 16, 1921, Bochkareva was shot in Krasnoyarsk on the resolution of the Chekists Ivan Pavlunovsky and Isaak Shimanovsky. However, it is known that Mary had influential defenders and there was an active struggle for her release. Her biographer S. V. Drokov believes that the execution order remained only on paper and was not carried out, and in fact this extraordinary woman was rescued by an American journalist from Odessa, Isaac Levin. This version says that Maria subsequently met one of her former fellow soldiers, a widower with children, and married him.