What happened to Bochkareva’s women’s battalion. Women's Death Battalion in the First World War: history of creation

The Women's Death Battalion in the First World War (photos are 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 the Highest permission to do so. Thanks to her heroism, by 1917 Maria Bochkareva had become quite famous. Arrived in April Western Front Rodzianko achieved a personal meeting with her, and then took her with him to Petrograd to campaign for the fight “to the bitter end” among the garrison troops and in front of the delegates to the Congress of the Petrograd Soviet. In her speech, Bochkareva put forward a proposal to form a women's death battalion. During the war, she said, such a formation was extremely necessary. After this, she was invited to speak at a meeting of the Provisional Government.

Prerequisites for the formation of a detachment

During the First World War, women of all ages - high school students, college students and representatives of other walks of life - volunteered to go 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 high school students died and 4 were wounded. The soldiers treated the girls like fathers. They got them uniforms, taught them how to shoot, and then signed them up. male names like privates. What made women who were good-looking, young, rich or noble plunge into military everyday life? Documents and memories point to many reasons. The main one, undoubtedly, was the patriotic impulse. He covered everything Russian society. It was the sense of patriotism and duty that forced many women to change their elegant outfits to military uniforms 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 deaths, joined the army out of a sense of revenge.

A special role belonged to the developing movement for equal rights with men. The revolutionary year of 1917 gave women many opportunities. They received voting and other rights. All this contributed to the emergence of soldier detachments that 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 death battalion was. In the First World War, 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 were capable of. With their heroism they infected all the soldiers who participated in the battles.

Women's Death Battalion: history of creation

The battalion was formed in a fairly short time. In 1917, on June 21, a solemn ceremony was held at St. Isaac's Cathedral on the square. On it, the new military formation received a white banner. On June 29, the Regulations were approved. It established the order of education military formations of female volunteers. Representatives from different walks of life signed up to join the ranks of the “shock girls”. 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, and student students. Simple peasant women, servants, girls from famous noble families, soldiers, Cossack women - they and many others went to serve in the women's death battalion. The history of the creation of Bochkareva’s unit began in difficult times. However, this became the impetus for the unification of girls into soldier detachments in other cities. Mostly Russian women joined the units. However, it was possible to meet representatives of other nationalities. Thus, according to documents, Estonians, Latvians, and Jews also went to serve in the women’s death battalion.

The history of the creation of units testifies to the high patriotism of the fairer sex. Units began to be formed 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 ranged from 250 to 1,500 people. In October 1917, the following were formed: the Naval Command, the Minsk Guard Squad, the Petrograd Cavalry Regiment, as well as the First Petrograd, Second Moscow, and Third Kuban Women's Death Battalions. Only the last three units took part in the First World War (history shows this). However, due to the intensifying processes of destruction of the Russian Empire, the formation of units was never completed.

Public attitude

Russian historian Solntseva wrote that the Soviets and the mass of soldiers perceived the women’s death battalion quite 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. At the beginning of 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 the First World War: photos, activities

Bochkareva’s unit arrived in the active army on June 27, 1917. The number of the detachment was 200 people. The women's 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 women's death battalion, received an order. He was to take a position at Crevo. On the right flank of the regiment there was a battalion of shockwomen. They were the first to enter the battle, since the enemy, who knew about the plans of the Russian army, launched a preemptive strike and entered the location of our troops.

Over the course of three days, 14 enemy attacks were repelled. Several times during this time the battalion launched counterattacks. As a result, 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 on the front line. The girls served in the same way as the soldiers, on an equal basis with them. When the Germans attacked, they all rushed into a counterattack, went on reconnaissance missions, and brought in cartridges. The Women's Death Battalion in the First World War was an example of bravery, calm and courage. Each of these heroine girls is worthy of the highest rank of Soldier revolutionary army Russia. As Bochkareva herself testified, out of 170 shock workers 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 her participation in battles and her heroism, she was awarded the rank of second lieutenant.

Consequences of losses

Due to the large number of girls killed and wounded in battles, General Kornilov signed an order prohibiting the formation of new death battalions to participate in battles. The existing units were assigned only an auxiliary function. In particular, they were instructed to provide security, communications, and act as sanitary groups. As a result, many volunteer girls who wanted to fight for their homeland with weapons in their hands submitted written statements that contained a request to be dismissed from the death battalion.

Discipline

She was quite tough. 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 took part in battles. "Udarnitsy" got the opportunity to master male 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 Johannisthal airfield, she worked for some time as an instructor. At the beginning of the war, Shakhovskaya petitioned to be sent to the front as a military pilot. The Emperor granted the request, and in November 1914, the princess was enlisted with the rank of ensign in the First Aviation Detachment.

Another striking example is Elena Samsonova. She was the daughter of a military engineer and graduated from high school and courses in Peretburg with a gold medal. Samsonova worked as a nurse in a Warsaw hospital. After that, she was enlisted as a driver in the 9th Army, which was located on the Southwestern Front. However, she did not serve there long - about four months, and then was sent to Moscow. Before the war, Samsonova received a pilot's diploma. In 1917, she was sent to the 26th aviation detachment.

Security 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 the defense of the Winter Palace in October 1917. On October 25, the detachment, which was stationed at Levashovo station, was supposed to head to the Romanian front. But the day before, Loskov received an order to send a unit “to the parade” in Petrograd. In fact, it was supposed to provide protection

Loskov learned about the real task and did not want to drag his subordinates into political disagreements. He withdrew 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 routing of Liteiny, Dvortsovoy and Dvortsovoy, but this task was thwarted by the Sovietized sailors. The remaining company of shockwomen positioned themselves to the right of the main gate on the first floor of the palace. During the night assault, she surrendered and was disarmed. The girls were taken to the barracks first by Pavlovsky, and then, according to some reports, a number of shockwomen were “mistreated.” Subsequently, a special commission of the Petrograd Duma found that four girls were raped (although, probably, few were even ready to admit it), and one committed suicide. On October 26, the company was sent back to Levashovo.

Elimination of units

After graduation October revolution the new Soviet government set a course for concluding peace, as well as withdrawing the country from the war. In addition, part of the forces was aimed at eliminating 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 promote all participants of volunteer units to officers for military merits. Nevertheless, a large number of female shock workers remained in the positions until January 1918 and longer.

Some women moved to the Don. There they took an active part in the fight against the Bolsheviks in the ranks of the Last of the remaining units was the Third Kuban Death Battalion. He was stationed in Yekaterinodar. This strike unit was disbanded only on February 26, 1918. The reason was the refusal of the headquarters Caucasian district ensure further supplies for the detachment.

and shape

Women who served in Bochkareva's battalion wore the "Adam's Head" symbol on their chevrons. They, like other soldiers, underwent a medical examination. Like men, girls cut their hair almost bald. During the fighting, women's participation and asceticism acquired a mass character for the first time in history. There were more than 25 thousand volunteer girls 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 army changed their worldview.

Finally

It must be said that when creating the first women's battalion, Kerensky played a special role. 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 minutes of meetings and various memos. All these papers reflected women's concerns future fate country, as well as the desire to protect the Motherland and preserve the freedom of the people. They believed that remaining inactive was tantamount to disgrace. Women strove to join the army, guided solely by their love for the Motherland and the desire to raise the morale of the soldiers. The Main Directorate of the General Staff established a special commission on labor service. At the same time, the headquarters of the military districts began to work to attract female volunteers into the army. However, the desire of women was so great that a wave of the creation of military organizations spontaneously spread across the country.

“Sometimes there are no names left from the heroes of bygone times...” These lines of a popular song can easily be 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 she could be the envy of many stars of modern politics and show business. Reporters vied with each other to interview her, illustrated magazines featured her photographic portraits and enthusiastic articles about the “hero woman” on the covers. But, alas, several years later, only Mayakovsky’s contemptuous lines about the “Bochkarevsky 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 the love-adventure novel so fashionable today: the wife of a drunken worker, the girlfriend of a bandit, 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 learned the basics of literacy towards the end of her life, had the opportunity in her lifetime to meet with the head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky, two supreme commanders-in-chief of the Russian army - A.A. Brusilov and L.G. Kornilov. “Russian Joan of Arc” was officially received by US President Woodrow Wilson and the English King George V.
Maria was born in July 1889 in Siberia into a peasant family. In 1905, she married 23-year-old Afanasy Bochkarev. Married life did not work out almost immediately, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunkard husband without regret. It was then that she met her “fatal love” in the person of a certain Yankel (Yakov) Buk, who, according to documents, was listed as a peasant, but in reality was engaged in robbery in a gang of “hunhuz”. When Yakov was finally arrested, Bochkareva decided to share the fate of her beloved and, like a Decembrist, went after him along the convoy to Yakutsk. But even in the settlement, Yakov continued to do the same things - he bought stolen goods and even participated in an attack on the post office.
To prevent Buk from being sent even further to Kolymsk, Maria agreed to give in to the advances of the Yakut governor. But, unable to survive the betrayal, she tried to poison herself, and then told Book everything. Yakov was hardly restrained 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 previous relationship with her lover has not been restored...

When did the first one start? World War, Maria decided to finally break with Yankel and go as a soldier to the active army. In November 1914, in Tomsk, she addressed 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. The annoying petitioner is given ironic advice: to contact the emperor directly. For the last eight rubles, Bochkareva sends a telegram to the highest name and soon, to the great surprise of the command, receives permission from Nicholas II. She was enrolled as a civilian soldier. According to an unwritten rule, soldiers gave each other nicknames. Remembering Buk, Maria asks to call herself Yashka.
Yashka fearlessly carried out bayonet attacks, pulled the wounded out of the battlefield, and was wounded several times. “For outstanding valor” she received the St. George Cross and three medals. She is awarded the rank of junior and then senior non-commissioned officer.

February Revolution turned the world familiar to Maria upside down: endless rallies took place in the positions, fraternizations 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 of female volunteers and, together with them, continue to defend the Motherland. There were no such units before in any of the countries that participated in the world war.
Bochkareva’s initiative received the approval of the Minister of War A.F. Kerensky and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief A.A. Brusilov. In their opinion, the “female factor” could have a positive moral impact on the decaying army. The idea was also supported by patriotic women's public organizations. Over two thousand women responded to the call of Bochkareva and the Women’s Union for Helping the Motherland. By order of Kerensky, female soldiers were allocated a separate room on Torgovaya Street, and ten experienced instructors were sent to train them in military formation and handling of weapons. Food for the shockwomen was brought from the barracks of the nearby 2nd Baltic Fleet Crew.
Initially, it was even assumed that with the first detachment of female volunteers, Kerensky’s wife Olga would go to the front as a nurse, who gave an undertaking “if necessary, to remain in the trenches all the time.” But, looking ahead, let’s say that the “Madam Minister” never made it to the trenches...

Numerous publications and photo reports depicted the life of female soldiers in very idyllic, colorful colors. The reality, alas, was more prosaic and harsher. Maria established strict discipline in the battalion: getting up at five in the morning, studying until ten in the evening, short rest and a simple soldier’s lunch. “Intelligent people” soon began to complain that Bochkareva was too rude and “beats people’s faces like a real sergeant of the old regime.” In addition, she prohibited the organization of any councils and committees in her battalion and the appearance of party agitators there. Supporters of “democratic reforms” even appealed to 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,” waving fiercely and expressively fist, says that those who are dissatisfied should get out, that she wants to have a disciplined unit.”

In the end, a split occurred in the formed battalion - approximately 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 return to Bochkarev’s “shock performers” themselves. On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony was held to present the 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 photograph from the museum collection. On the left flank of the detachment, in a brand new ensign uniform (she was promoted to the first officer rank by a special order from Kerensky), stood the excited Maria: “I thought that all eyes were fixed on me alone. Petrograd Archbishop Veniamin and Ufa Archbishop bid our death battalion farewell with the image of the Tikhvin Mother of God. It’s finished, 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 also heard from the crowd.
June 23 unusual military unit went to the front. Life immediately dispelled the romance. Initially, they even had to post sentries at the battalion barracks: the revolutionary soldiers pestered the “women” with unambiguous proposals. Baptism of fire the battalion received in fierce battles with the Germans near Smorgon in early July 1917. One of the command reports said that “Bochkareva’s detachment behaved heroically in battle” and set an example of “bravery, courage and calm.” And even one of the leaders of the white movement, General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, who was very skeptical about such “army surrogates,” 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 a Petrograd hospital. After recovery, she received an order from the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief Lavr Kornilov to inspect the women’s battalions, of which there were already almost a dozen. A review of the Moscow battalion showed its complete incapacity for combat. 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 disband her battalion home, and she herself again headed to Petrograd. In Smolny, one of the representatives of the new regime (she herself claimed that it was Lenin or Trotsky) spent a long time convincing Maria that she should defend 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 thing - “I don’t take part in combat during the civil war” - a year later she told the White Guard commander in the North of Russia, General Marushevsky, when he tried to force Maria to form combat units. For refusal, the angry general ordered Bochkareva’s arrest, and he was stopped only by the intervention of the British allies...
However, Bochkareva still sided with the whites. On behalf of General Kornilov, she, wearing forged documents and dressed as a nurse, made her way through civil war-torn Russia to make a propaganda trip to the United States and England in 1918. Later, in the fall of 1919, a meeting took place with another “supreme” - Admiral A.V. Kolchak. Aged and exhausted from wanderings, Maria Leontyevna came to ask for resignation, but he persuaded Bochkareva to continue serving and form a voluntary sanitary detachment. Maria made passionate 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 came to the commandant of the city, handed over a revolver to him and offered her cooperation to the Soviet authorities. The commandant took her undertaking not to leave the place and sent her home. On Christmas night 1920, she was arrested and then sent to Krasnoyarsk. Bochkareva gave frank and ingenuous answers to all the investigator’s questions, which put the security officers 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 resolution: “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, especially since the death penalty in the RSFSR was once again abolished by a resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars. But, unfortunately, here the deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka, I. P. Pavlunovsky, arrived in Siberia, endowed 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 short resolution: “Bochkareva Maria Leontievna - shoot.” On May 16, 1920, the sentence was carried out. “Russian Joan of Arc” was thirty-one years old.

We will not hide that the reason for writing this article was watching the film “Battalion” by director Dmitry Meskhiev. Moreover, the film itself seemed not as interesting as its real prototypes. Going to “Battalion”, you expect stingy male tears to well up in your eyes. But in fact, the true drama of those days, filmed in our days, was more cruel and chilling than Meskhiev’s picture. We have not yet learned how to handle dramatic plots according to all the canons. No matter how much they swear at films produced abroad, they know how to make films there. So much so that it’s not a sin to shed a tear. But it’s good that such topics began to be raised. The heroes of the First World War, who were undeservedly forgotten and subjected to oblivion due to their disagreement with the policies of Soviet and communist ideologists, are now gaining recognition.

Maria Bochkareva

It is with this name that the formation of the first women’s death battalion is associated, which, in fact, is the subject of the story in Meskhiev’s film. Her fate is very indicative, as an example of the traditional Russian character, when from dirt through all obstacles a person reached recognition and glory among worthy people, and then paid for it with interest. A peasant woman who became the commander of an entire battalion, received many awards, and was recognized by many officers as an equal. What had to happen in the life of this woman for her to turn from a representative of the fairer sex into a soldier.

Born into a poor peasant family, Maria Bochkareva soon left with her parents for Siberia, where they were promised land and government subsidies. But as often happens, they lured us with bread and butter, but in reality it turned out to be a big deal. It was impossible to overcome poverty; they were managed as best they could. Therefore, her parents had to marry Maria off at the age of 15. But this marriage did not last long. Her betrothed, despite his 23 years, was a serious alcoholic, and in the heat of ensuing insanity, he began to beat his wife. Masha could not stand this behavior and ran away from her unlucky hubby. She ran to the local butcher Yakov Buk. But that one also turned out to be a gift from fate. First, he was arrested in 1912 for robbery, and a little later Yakov received an even longer sentence for participating in a Honghuz gang. His current wife followed him to each of the places of detention, but only until he, too, began to drink and began to repeat the mistakes of his previous chosen one.

Just at this time, the First World War broke out, and Maria Bochkareva (by the way, she got her last name from her first husband) decided to volunteer for the front. At first they didn’t want to accept her at all, but then they agreed to put the young girl into service in the medical troops. For some time, helping the wounded, she did not give up hope of being transferred to the front. Which happened just a few weeks later. At the front, Bochkareva became a phenomenon. Experiencing regular portions cruel mockery from the soldiers, she fought fiercely and selflessly in battle. Therefore, soon the bullying ended, and she began to be treated as an equal. The result of his service in the ranks of the Russian Army on the fronts of the First World War was the rank of non-commissioned officer, the St. George Cross, 3 medals of distinction and 2 wounds.

But there were troubled times just around the corner.

Creation of a women's death battalion

The provisional government could not hold the front. The activities of Soviet agitators undermined rear support, and rebellion and mutiny were brewing in the ranks of the soldiers themselves. People, tired of the war, were ready to throw down their weapons and go home. In such a situation, senior officers demanded that strict measures be taken to introduce disciplinary penalties, including the execution of deserters. But the chairman of the provisional government was General A.F. Krymov, who is remembered by us for the fate of his life. Kerensky, he had his own opinion on this matter. At his request, instead of introducing a harsh suppression of disobedience, a decision was made to form a women’s battalion in the ranks of the Russian army in order to increase the morale of the soldiers and shame those who laid down their arms without ending the war.

The best commander for such a unit could only be Maria Bochkareva. At the urgent request of the officers, Kerensky personally instructs Maria to lead the detachment and begin staffing it immediately. Those were desperate times, many people felt pain for the Fatherland, even women. Therefore, there were enough volunteers. There were many women who served, but there were also civilians. There was a special influx from widows and soldiers' wives. Noble maidens also walked. In total, the first recruitment into the battalion consisted of about 2,000 women and girls who decided to help their country in such an unusual way for them.

Kerensky listened with obvious impatience. It was obvious that he had already made up his mind on this matter. I doubted only one thing: whether I could maintain high morale and morality in this battalion. Kerensky said that he would allow me to begin formation immediately<…>When Kerensky accompanied me to the door, his gaze settled on General Polovtsev. He asked him to provide me with any necessary assistance. I almost suffocated with happiness.
M.L. Bochkareva.

Maria Bochkareva’s life was not all sugar, so she long ago stopped considering herself just a woman. She is a soldier, an officer, so she demanded the same approach from her subordinates. There shouldn't have been women in her battalion; she needed soldiers. Of the 2,000 people, 300 completed training; only 200 returned to the front. The rest could not withstand the stress and barracks situation. Before being sent to the front on June 21, 1917, the new unit of troops was presented with a white banner, on which there was an inscription that read “The first women's military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva.” The women went to the front.

At the front, Bochkareva’s battalion heard a lot of “pleasant things” from the soldiers. The gentlemen with red bows in their buttonholes, imbued with the new revolutionary ideology, especially ranted. They considered the arrival of female soldiers to be a provocation, which was actually not far from the truth. After all, women howling and dying with weapons in their hands are a disgrace to healthy men who have laid down their arms, who were sitting in the rear and drinking German swill.

Arriving on the Western Front, the battalion of female soldiers entered its first battle on July 9. Positions in this part of the front constantly changed hands. Having fought off the attack German troops Bochkareva’s unit took enemy positions and for a long time held them back. The heaviest battles were accompanied by equally heavy losses. By the time of direct hostilities, the battalion commander had 170 bayonets at his disposal. By the end of a series of protracted battles, only 70 remained in the ranks. The rest were listed as killed and seriously wounded. Maria herself received another wound.

Bochkareva’s detachment behaved heroically in battle, always in the front line, serving on an equal basis with the soldiers. When the Germans attacked, on his own initiative he rushed as one into a counterattack; brought cartridges, went to secrets, and some to reconnaissance; With their work, the death squad set an example of bravery, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes is worthy of the title of warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.

V. I. Zakrzhevsky

Having seen enough of the blood of female soldiers, the commander of the Russian Army, General Lavr Kornilov, banned the formation of women’s detachments, and sent the current detachments to the rear and for sanitary provision. This was truly the last battle of Maria Bochkareva’s death battalion.

Legacy of a Warrior Woman

Over time, despite Kornilov’s order, other battalions will be created in the army, numerically and high-quality composition which will consist only of women. During the civil war, Bochkareva, due to persecution by the new government, will leave the country in search of help for the White movement. Returning to the country and starting to form new units to fight the Bolsheviks, she will be arrested and thrown into prison. According to documentary evidence, in 1920 Maria Bochkareva was shot for aiding the White movement and devotion to the ideas of General Kornilov. But according to other sources, she was released from prison, married a third time and lived under a false name on the Chinese Eastern Railway.

During her trip abroad, she met US President Woodrow Wilson, King George V of England, and shortly before her arrest she was received by Admiral Kolchak. If you believe the documentary reports, she lived only 31 years, but during this time she saw so much that people would not have seen in 2 or even 3 lives. Her name has been forgotten for aiding the White movement, but the advantages of the current times are that individuals like her are receiving rehabilitation. Not only official at the government level, but also popular. Our magazine is dedicated to men, but this woman was more worthy than many of us, so it is our duty to talk about her and remember her.

From a family of illiterate peasants, Maria Bochkareva was clearly an extraordinary person. Her name thundered throughout Russian Empire. Of course: a female officer, Knight of St. George, organizer and commander of the first female “battalion...

From a family of illiterate peasants, Maria Bochkareva was clearly an extraordinary person. Her name thundered throughout the Russian Empire. Of course: a female officer, Knight of St. George, organizer and commander of the first female “death battalion”. She met with Kerensky and Brusilov, Lenin and Trotsky, Kornilov and Kolchak, Winston Churchill, English King George V and US President Woodrow Wilson. They all noted the extraordinary strength of spirit of this woman.

Maria Bochkareva

The hard lot of a Russian woman

Maria Bochkareva (Frolkova) came from Novgorod peasants. Hoping for a better life, the Frolkov family moved to Siberia, where land was distributed to the peasants for free. But the Frolkovs were unable to raise virgin soil; they settled in the Tomsk province and lived in extreme poverty. At the age of 15, Marusya was married off, and she became Bochkareva. Together with her husband, she unloaded barges and worked in an asphalt laying crew. It was here that Bochkareva’s extraordinary organizational skills first appeared; very soon she became an assistant foreman, with 25 people working under her supervision. And the husband remained a laborer. He drank and beat his wife to death. Maria fled from him to Irkutsk, where she met Yakov Buk. Maria's new common-law husband was a gambler and, moreover, with criminal inclinations. As part of a gang of Honghuz, Yakov took part in robbery attacks. In the end, he was arrested and exiled to the Yakut province. Maria followed her beloved to distant Amga. Yakov did not appreciate the feat of self-sacrifice of the woman who loved him and soon began to drink and beat Maria. There seemed to be no way out of this vicious circle. But the First World War broke out.

Private Bochkareva

On foot through the taiga, Maria went to Tomsk, where she appeared at the recruiting station and asked to be enrolled as an ordinary soldier. The officer wisely suggested that she enroll as a nurse in the Red Cross or some auxiliary service. But Maria definitely wanted to go to the front. Having borrowed 8 rubles, she sent a telegram to the Highest Name: why was she denied the right to fight and die for her Motherland? The answer came surprisingly quickly, and, by the Highest permission, an exception was made for Maria. This is how “Private Bochkarev” appeared on the battalion’s lists. They cut her hair like a clipper and gave her a rifle, two pouches, a tunic, trousers, an overcoat, a hat and everything else that a soldier should have.

On the very first night, there were people who wanted to check “by touch”, but was this unsmiling soldier really a woman? Maria had not only a strong character, but also a heavy hand: without looking, she hit the daredevils with all that came to hand - boots, a bowler hat, a pouch. And the fist of the former asphalt paver turned out to be not a lady’s at all. In the morning, Maria didn’t say a word about the “night fight,” but she was among the first in class. Soon the entire company was proud of their unusual soldier (where else is there such a thing?) and was ready to kill anyone who encroached on the honor of their “Yashka” (Maria received this nickname from her fellow soldiers). In February 1915, the 24th reserve battalion was sent to the front. Maria refused the officers' offer to travel in the staff car near Molodechno and arrived with everyone else in a heated train.

Front

On the third day after arriving at the front, the company in which Bochkareva served went on the attack. Of the 250 people, 70 reached the line of wire barriers. Unable to overcome the barriers, the soldiers turned back. Less than 50 reached their trenches. As soon as it got dark, Maria crawled to no man's land and spent the whole night dragging the wounded into the trench. She saved almost 50 people that night, for which she was nominated for an award and received the St. George Cross, 4th degree. Bochkareva went on attacks, night raids, captured prisoners, and “took more than one German at the bayonet.” Her fearlessness was legendary. By February 1917 she had 4 wounds and 4 St. George's awards(2 crosses and 2 medals), on the shoulders are the shoulder straps of a senior non-commissioned officer.

Year 1917

In the army at this time there is complete chaos: privates have equal rights with officers, orders are not carried out, desertion has reached unprecedented proportions, decisions to attack are made not at headquarters, but at rallies. The soldiers are tired and don't want to fight anymore. Bochkareva does not accept all this: how can it be, 3 years of war, so many victims, and all in vain?! But those who agitate at soldiers’ rallies for “war to a victorious end” are simply beaten. In May 1917, the chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, M. Rodzianko, arrived at the front. He met with Bochkareva and immediately invited her to Petrograd. According to his plan, Maria should become a participant in a series of propaganda campaigns for the continuation of the war. But Bochkareva went further than his plans: on May 21, at one of the rallies, she put forward the idea of ​​​​creating a “Shock Women’s Death Battalion.”

"Death Battalion" by Maria Bochkareva

The idea was approved and supported by Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and Kerensky, who then held the post of military and Minister of the Navy. Within a few days, more than 2,000 female volunteers signed up for the battalion in response to Maria’s call to the women of Russia to shame the men by their example. Among them were bourgeois and peasant women, domestic servants and university graduates. There were also representatives of noble families of Russia. Bochkareva established strict discipline in the battalion and supported it with her iron hand (in the full sense of the word - she beat faces like a real old-regime sergeant). A number of women who did not accept Bochkarev’s measures to control the battalion broke away and organized their own shock battalion (it was this battalion, not the “Bochkarevsky” one, that defended the Winter Palace in October 1917). Bochkareva’s initiative was taken up throughout Russia: in Moscow, Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Simbirsk, Kharkov, Smolensk, Vyatka, Baku, Irkutsk, Mariupol, Odessa, women’s infantry and cavalry units and even women’s naval teams began to be created (Oranienbaum). (However, the formation of many was never completed)

female recruits in Petrograd in 1917

On June 21, 1917, Petrograd escorted shockwomen to the front. In front of a huge crowd of people, the battalion was presented with a banner, Kornilov presented Bochkareva with a personalized weapon, and Kerensky - the shoulder straps of an ensign. On June 27, the battalion arrived at the front, and on July 8 entered into battle.

Vain victims of the women's battalion

The fate of the battalion can be called tragic. The women who rose to attack really carried away the neighboring companies. The first line of defense was taken, then the second, third... - and that’s it. Other parts did not rise. No reinforcements arrived. The shock troops repelled several German counterattacks. There was a threat of encirclement. Bochkareva ordered a retreat. The positions taken in battle had to be abandoned. The battalion's casualties (30 killed and 70 wounded) were in vain. Bochkareva herself was seriously shell-shocked in that battle and sent to the hospital. After 1.5 months, she (already with the rank of second lieutenant) returned to the front and found the situation even worse. Shock women served on an equal basis with men, were called up for reconnaissance, and rushed into counterattacks, but the example of women did not inspire anyone. The 200 surviving shockwomen could not save the army from decay. Clashes between them and the soldiers, who were striving to “bayonet in the ground and go home” as quickly as possible, threatened to escalate into a civil war in a single regiment. Considering the situation hopeless, Bochkareva disbanded the battalion and left for Petrograd.

In the ranks of the White movement

She was too prominent a figure to disappear unnoticed in Petrograd. She was arrested and taken to Smolny. Lenin and Trotsky talked with the famous Maria Bochkareva. The leaders of the revolution tried to attract such a bright personality to cooperation, but Maria, citing injuries, refused. Members of the White movement also sought meetings with her. She also told the representative of the underground officer organization, General Anosov, that she would not fight against her people, but she agreed to go to the Don to General Kornilov as a liaison organization. So Bochkareva became a participant Civil War. Dressed as a sister of mercy, Maria went south. In Novocherkassk, she handed over letters and documents to Kornilov and set off, now as the personal representative of General Kornilov, to ask for help from the Western powers.

Diplomatic mission of Maria Bochkareva

Having traveled through all of Russia, she reached Vladivostok, where she boarded an American ship. On April 3, 1918, Maria Bochkareva went ashore in the port of San Francisco. Newspapers wrote about her, she spoke at meetings, and met with prominent public and political figures. The envoy of the White movement was received by the US Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State Lansing and US President Woodrow Wilson. Next, Maria went to England, where she met with Secretary of War Winston Churchill and King George V. Maria begged, persuaded, and convinced all of them to help the White Army, with money, weapons, food, and they all promised her this help. Inspired, Maria goes back to Russia.

In the whirlwind of the fronts of the Civil War

In August 1918, Bochkareva arrived in Arkhangelsk, where she again took the initiative to organize a women’s battalion. The government of the Northern region reacted coolly to this initiative. General Marushevsky openly stated that attracting women to military service considers it a disgrace. In June 1919, a caravan of ships left Arkhangelsk heading east. In the holds of ships there are weapons, ammunition and ammunition for troops Eastern Front. On one of the ships is Maria Bochkareva. Her goal is Omsk, her last hope is Admiral Kolchak.

She reached Omsk and met with Kolchak. The admiral made a strong impression on her and entrusted the organization of a medical detachment. In 2 days, Maria formed a group of 200 people, but the front was already cracking and rolling to the east. Less than a month will pass before the “third capital” is abandoned; Kolchak himself has less than six months to live.

Arrest - sentence - death

In the tenth of November, Kolchak left Omsk. Maria did not leave with the retreating troops. Tired of fighting, she decided to reconcile with the Bolsheviks and returned to Tomsk. But her fame was too odious, the burden of Bochkareva’s sins before the Soviet regime was too heavy. People who took a much less active part in the White movement paid for it with their lives. What can we say about Bochkareva, whose name repeatedly appeared on the pages of white newspapers. On January 7, 1920, Maria Bochkareva was arrested, and on May 16, she was shot as “an irreconcilable and worst enemy of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Republic.” Rehabilitated in 1992.

The name will return

Maria Bochkareva was not the only woman who fought in the First World War. Thousands of women went to the front as sisters of mercy, many made their way to the front posing as men. Unlike them, Maria did not hide her female gender for a single day, which, however, does not in the least detract from the feat of the other “Russian Amazons.” Maria Bochkareva should have taken her rightful place on the pages of the Russian history textbook. But, for known reasons, in Soviet time the slightest mention of her was carefully erased. Only a few contemptuous lines from Mayakovsky remained in his poem “Good!”

In different historical eras and in different parts light, when, due to constant wars, the ranks of men were greatly thinned, women created their own combat units. In Russia, during the First World War, so-called women's death battalions also appeared. The first such unit was headed by Maria Bochkareva, one of the most unlucky 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 Marusya was six years old, the family moved to Tomsk in search of a better life, since the government promised considerable benefits to immigrants to 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, enduring 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 beaten so severely by her father that she suffered a concussion. Then, at the age of 15, Maria was married to Japanese war veteran Afanasy Bochkarev. The marriage was unsuccessful: the husband drank heavily and beat his young wife. Maria tried to escape from him and somehow get settled in life, but her husband found her, brought her home and everything continued as before. The girl repeatedly tried to take her own life. IN last time she was saved by the robber and gambler Yankel Buk, who was part of the international gang of Honghuz. He did not let her drink a glass of vinegar. Maria became his partner.

Some time later, 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 one day 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 as a soldier. The commander laughed it off and advised her to turn to the emperor himself. However, Maria’s existence 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 active 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 went to the front, her fellow soldiers perceived her ironically. Her military nickname was “Yashka”, after her second husband. Maria recalled that she spent the first night in the barracks handing out blows to her comrades. She tried to visit not a soldier’s bathhouse, 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 if harassed. Soon the soldiers got used to her and stopped mocking her, recognizing her as “one of their own”; sometimes they even took her with them to the brothel as a joke.

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 battles and pulled fifty wounded from under fire. She herself was wounded four times. Returning from the hospital, she received the warmest welcome in the unit, probably for the first time in her life being in a friendly environment. She was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer and awarded the St. 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 widespread. Rodzianko hoped that the example of fearless patriotic women would inspire the soldiers and unite the Russian army.

Maria Bochkareva became the commander of the women's death battalion. More than 2,000 women responded to her call, wanting to defend the country with arms in hand. Many of them were from among the romantic St. Petersburg institutes, carried away by patriotic ideas and having absolutely no idea about real military life, but willingly posing in soldier’s image for photographers. Bochkareva, seeing this, immediately demanded that her subordinates strictly adhere to her requirements: unquestioning obedience, no jewelry and a haircut. There were also complaints about Maria’s heavy hand, which could, in the best sergeant-major traditions, slap people in the face. Those dissatisfied with such orders quickly dropped 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 from 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 Calvary and the atonement for the sins of mankind.

How were women warriors perceived?

At the front, the girls had to fight off the soldiers: many perceived the female recruits exclusively as legal prostitutes. Prostitutes accompanying the army often dressed like military uniform, so the girls’ ammunition didn’t stop anyone. Their military 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 into battle for the first time. Over three days, the women's death battalion repelled 14 German attacks. Several times the girls went on counterattacks, entered into hand-to-hand combat and knocked out German units from their positions. Commander Anton Denikin was impressed by the women's heroism.

Rodzianko’s calculations did not come true: the male combat units continued to take cover in the trenches while the girls rose to attack. The battalion lost 30 soldiers, about 70 were wounded. 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 moved to the rear. After the October Revolution, on Bochkareva’s initiative, her detachment was disbanded.

Alternative battalion of college girls

Those girls who were weeded out by Bochkareva created the Petrograd Women's Death Battalion. Here it was allowed to use cosmetics, wear elegant underwear and do beautiful hair. The composition was fundamentally different: in addition to the romantic graduates of the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens, the battalion was joined by adventurers of various kinds, including prostitutes who decided to change their field of activity. This second detachment, formed by the Women's Patriotic Union, was supposed to defend the Winter Palace in Petrograd. However, when Zimny ​​was captured by the revolutionaries, this detachment did not offer resistance: 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, treated without any respect, raped, and soon the Petrograd Women's Battalion was disbanded.

Refusal to cooperate with the Bolsheviks in favor of the White Guards

After the October Revolution, Lenin and Trotsky considered Maria Bochkareva a suitable candidate for organizing the Soviet women's movement. However, Maria refused, citing her reluctance to further take part in battles. She went over to the side of the White movement, but did not really participate in the hostilities and made an attempt to go to her family in Tomsk. On the way, Bochkareva was captured by the Bolsheviks, from whom she managed to escape in the costume of a nurse. 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 Maria a tour throughout the country giving 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 difficult fate.

Then Mary arrived in London and had the honor of talking with King George. The latter promised her financial and military support. She returned to her homeland with the English military corps. From Arkhangelsk she went to the capital of the White Guards, Omsk, joining the army of Alexander Kolchak, who invited her to form a women’s detachment. This attempt was unsuccessful. By the way, Kolchak, in Maria’s opinion, was too indecisive, as a result of which the Bolsheviks everywhere went on the offensive.

Mysteries of extraordinary fate

There are different versions about Maria's arrest. According to one of them, she voluntarily came to the Cheka and surrendered 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 according to the resolution of security officers Ivan Pavlunovsky and Isaac 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 order to execute remained only on paper and was not carried out, and in fact this extraordinary woman was rescued by an American journalist originally from Odessa, Isaac Levin. This version says that Maria subsequently met one of her former fellow soldiers, a widower with children, and married him.