Women's battalions are military formations consisting exclusively of women, created by the Provisional Government, mainly for the propaganda purpose of raising the patriotic spirit in the army and shaming by example male soldiers refusing to fight. Despite this, they participated to a limited extent in the fighting of the First World War. One of the initiators of their creation was Maria Bochkareva.
History of origin
Senior non-commissioned officer M. L. Bochkareva, who was at the front with the Highest permission (since women were prohibited from being sent to units of the active army) from 1914 to 1917, thanks to her heroism, became a famous person. M.V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a propaganda trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, specifically asked for a meeting with her and took her with him to Petrograd to campaign for “war to a victorious end” among the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the congress soldiers' deputies of the Petrograd Soviet. In a speech to the delegates of the congress, Bochkareva first voiced her idea of creating shock women’s “death battalions.” After this, she was invited to present her proposal at a meeting of the Provisional Government.
Maria Bochkareva, Emmeline Pankhurst (leader of the British suffragette movement) and members of the Women's Death Battalion, 1917.
Wikipedia
Women volunteers of the First World War, 1916
PhotoDay
“They told me that my idea was great, but I needed to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. Together with Rodzianka, I went to Brusilov’s Headquarters... Brusilov told me in his office that you have hope for women and that the formation of a women’s battalion is the first in the world "Can't women disgrace Russia? I told Brusilov that I myself am not confident in women, but if you give me full authority, then I guarantee that my battalion will not disgrace Russia... Brusilov told me that he believes me and will do everything possible try to help in the formation of a women's volunteer battalion." - M. L. Bochkareva.
June 21, 1917 on the square St. Isaac's Cathedral A solemn ceremony took place to present the new military unit with a white banner with the inscription “The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva.” On June 29, the Military Council approved the regulation “On the formation of military units from female volunteers.”
“Kerensky listened with obvious impatience. It was obvious that he had already made a decision on this matter. He doubted only one thing: whether I could maintain high morale and ethics in this battalion. Kerensky said that he would allow me to begin formation immediately When Kerensky saw me off to the door, his gaze settled on General Polovtsev. He asked him to provide me with any necessary help. I almost suffocated with happiness." - M. L. Bochkareva
Women's Death Battalion at summer camp, 1917.
Wikipedia
The ranks of the “shock women” were primarily recruited from female military personnel from front-line units (in the Russian Imperial Army there were a small number of female military personnel, the presence in the army of each of whom was approved by the Highest Resolution, among them were even St. George's Knights), but also women from civil society - noblewomen, student students, teachers, workers. There was a large proportion of female soldiers and Cossack women. Bochkareva’s battalion included both girls from the famous noble families of Russia, as well as simple peasant women and servants. Maria Skrydlova, the daughter of Admiral N.I. Skrydlov, served as Bochkareva’s adjutant. The nationality of the female volunteers was mainly Russian, but there were also other nationalities among them - Estonians, Latvians, Jews, and Englishmen. The number of women's units ranged from 250 to 1,500 people.
The appearance of Bochkareva’s detachment served as an impetus for the formation of women’s detachments in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to the intensifying processes of destruction Russian state the creation of these female shock troops was 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); Marine 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 Bochkareva’s 1st battalion took part in the fighting.
Attitude to the women's movement
Petrograd units of the Women's Death Battalion in a military camp, 1917.
Wikipedia
As I wrote Russian historian S.A. Solntseva, the mass of soldiers and the Soviets received the “women’s death battalions” (as well as all other shock units) “with hostility.” The front-line soldiers did not call the shock workers anything other than “prostitutes.” At the beginning of July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded that all “women’s battalions” be disbanded as “unsuitable for military service” - moreover, the formation of such battalions was regarded by the Petrograd Soviet as “a secretive maneuver of the bourgeoisie, wanting to wage the war to a victorious end.”
Participation in the battles of the First World War
On June 27, 1917, the “death battalion” of two hundred people arrived in active army- to 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 Molodechno, near Smorgon.
On July 9, 1917, according to the plans of the Headquarters, the Western Front was supposed to go on the offensive. On July 7, 1917, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock troops, received an order to take positions at the front near the town of Krevo. The "death battalion" was on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, 1917, he entered into battle for the first time, since the enemy, knowing about the plans of the Russian command, launched a preemptive strike and wedged itself into the location of the Russian troops. Over three days, the regiment repelled 14 attacks by German troops. Several times the battalion launched counterattacks and knocked the Germans out of the Russian positions occupied the day before. This is what Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in his report on the actions of the “death battalion”:
Metropolitan Tikhon of Moscow blesses the women's shock battalion before being sent to the front. 1917, newspaper "Iskra"
Wikimedia Commons
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. According to Bochkareva herself, out of 170 people who took part 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 female battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief, General L.G. Kornilov, by his order banned the creation of new female “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 women volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with weapons in their hands wrote statements asking to be dismissed from the “death units.”
Defense of the Provisional Government
Shock women of the 2nd company of the 1st Petrograd women's battalion on Palace Square on the eve of the October Revolution of 1917.
Photo from the Museum of the Revolution, Moscow
Russia's Great War & Revolution
One of the women's death battalions (1st Petrograd, under the command of the Life Guards Kexholm Regiment of Staff Captain A.V. Loskov in October 1917, together with cadets and other units loyal to the oath, took part in the defense Winter Palace, which housed the Provisional Government.
On October 25 (November 7), the battalion, stationed near the Levashovo station of the Finnish Railway, was supposed to go to the Romanian front (according to the command plans, it was planned that each of the formed women’s battalions would be sent to the front to raise morale 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 orders to send the battalion to Petrograd “for a parade” (in fact, to protect the Provisional Government). Loskov, having learned about the real task and not wanting to drag 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 headquarters of the Petrograd Military District tried, with the help of two platoons of shock troops and units of cadets, to ensure the construction of the Nikolaevsky, Dvortsovy and Liteiny bridges, but the Sovietized sailors thwarted this task.
The company took up defense on the first floor of the Winter Palace in the area to the right of the main gate to Millionnaya Street. At night, during the storming of the palace, the company surrendered, was disarmed and taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier regiment, where some shockwomen were “treated badly” - as a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma established, three shockwomen were raped (although, perhaps, few dared to admit it), one committed suicide. On October 26 (November 8), the company was sent to its previous location in Levashovo.
It is curious that, ironically, it was the “shock women” expelled by Bochkareva “for easy behavior” who became part of the new 1st Petrograd Women’s Battalion, whose units unsuccessfully defended the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917.
Elimination of women's death battalions
After the October Revolution, the Soviet government, which set a course for the speedy conclusion of peace, the withdrawal of Russia from the world war and the liquidation of the Russian Imperial Army, disbanded all “shock units.” Women's shock formations were disbanded on November 30, 1917 by the Military Council of the still old War Ministry. Moreover, shortly before this, on November 19, an order was issued to promote female military personnel of volunteer units to officers for military merit. However, many volunteers remained in their units until January 1918 and beyond. Some of them moved to the Don and took part in the fight against Bolshevism in the ranks of the White movement. The very last of the existing shock units was the 3rd Kuban Women's Strike Battalion, stationed in Yekaterinodar - it was disbanded only on February 26, 1918 due to the refusal of the headquarters of the Caucasian Military District to supply it further.
The future heroine of the Russian-American blockbuster “Battalion”, which our modern “patriots” watch with aspiration, Maria Bochkareva was born in 1889 into a family of peasants in the village of Nikolskoye, Novgorod province, Leonty and Olga Frolkov. The family, fleeing poverty and hunger, moved to Siberia, where fifteen-year-old Maria was married to a local drunkard. After some time, Bochkareva left her husband for the butcher Yakov Buk, who led a local gang of robbers. In May 1912, Buk was arrested and sent to serve his sentence in Yakutsk. Bochkareva followed Yasha on foot to Eastern Siberia, where the two of them again opened a butcher shop as a diversion, although in fact Buk, with the participation of his mistress, organized a gang of Honghuz and engaged in the usual robbery on the highway. Soon the police were on the trail of the gang, Buk and Bochkareva were arrested and transferred to a settlement in the remote taiga village of Amga, where there was no one left to rob.
Bochkareva’s betrothed, from such grief and the inability to do what he loved, namely, robbery, as usual in Rus', began to drink and began to practice beating his mistress. At this time the First broke out World War, and Bochkareva decided to end her taiga-robber stage of life and go to the front, especially since Yashka became more and more brutal with melancholy. Only registration as a volunteer in the army allowed Maria to leave the place of settlement determined by the police. The male military refused to enroll the girl in the 24th reserve battalion and advised her to go to the front as a nurse. Bochkareva, not wanting to carry the wounded and wash bandages, sent a telegram to the Tsar asking him to give her the opportunity to shoot the Germans to her heart’s content. The telegram reached the addressee, and an unexpected positive response came from the king. This is how the mistress of a Siberian robber ended up at the front.
At first, the woman in uniform caused ridicule and harassment from her colleagues, but her courage in battle brought her universal respect, the St. George Cross and three medals. In those years, the nickname “Yashka” stuck to her, in memory of her unlucky life partner. After two wounds and countless battles, Bochkareva was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer.
M.V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a propaganda trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, took her with him to Petrograd to campaign for “war to a victorious end” among the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the Congress of Soldiers’ Deputies of the Petrograd Soviet.
After a series of speeches by Bochkareva, Kerensky, in a fit of yet another propaganda adventurism, approached her with a proposal to organize “ women's battalion of death". Both Kerensky and the St. Petersburg institutes, total number up to 2000 girls. In the unusual military unit, arbitrariness reigned, to which Bochkareva was accustomed to in the active army: subordinates complained to the authorities that Bochkareva “beats people’s faces, like a real sergeant of the old regime.” Not many could stand this treatment: in a short time the number of female volunteers was reduced to 300.
But nevertheless, on June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac’s Cathedral in Petrograd, a solemn ceremony took place 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.” On June 29, the Military Council approved the regulation “On the formation of military units from female volunteers.” The appearance of Bochkareva’s detachment served as an impetus for the formation of women’s units in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to the historical development of events, the creation of these women’s shock units was never completed.
Strict discipline was established in the women's battalions: waking up at five in the morning, studying until ten in the evening and simple soldier's food. Women had their heads shaved. Black shoulder straps with a red stripe and an emblem in the form of a skull and two crossed bones symbolized “an unwillingness to live if Russia perishes.”
M. Bochkareva banned any party propaganda and the organization of any councils and committees in her battalion. Due to harsh discipline, a split occurred in the still-forming battalion. Some women attempted to form a soldiers’ committee and sharply criticized Bochkareva’s brutal management methods. There was a split in the battalion. M. Bochkareva was summoned alternately to the district commander, General Polovtsev and Kerensky. Both conversations took place heatedly, but Bochkareva stood her ground: she would not have any committees!
She reorganized her battalion. Approximately 300 women remained in it, and it became the 1st Petrograd Shock Battalion. And from the remaining women who disagreed with Bochkareva’s command methods, the 2nd Moscow Shock Battalion was formed.
The 1st battalion received its baptism of fire on July 9, 1917. The women came under heavy artillery and machine gun fire. Although the reports said that “Bochkareva’s detachment behaved heroically in battle,” it became clear that female military units could not become an effective fighting force. After the battle, 200 female soldiers remained in the ranks. Losses were 30 killed and 70 wounded. M. Bochkareva was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, and subsequently to lieutenant. Such heavy losses of volunteers also had other consequences for the women’s battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief L. G. Kornilov, by his Order, prohibited the creation of new women’s “death battalions” for combat use, and the already created units were ordered to be used only in auxiliary areas (security functions, communications , sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with weapons in their hands wrote statements asking to be dismissed from the “death units.”
The second Moscow battalion, which left the command of Bochkareva, had the lot to be among last defenders Provisional Government during the October Revolution. This was the only military unit that Kerensky managed to inspect the day before the coup. As a result, only the second company was selected to guard the Winter Palace, but not the entire battalion. The defense of the Winter Palace, as we know, ended in tears. Immediately after the capture of the Winter Palace, the most sensational stories about the terrible fate of the women's battalion that defended the palace spread in the anti-Bolshevik press. It was said that some female soldiers were thrown out of windows onto the pavement, almost all the rest were raped, and many committed suicide, not being able to survive all these horrors.
The City Duma appointed a special commission to investigate the case. On November 16 (3), this commission returned from Levashov, where the women’s battalion was quartered. Deputy Tyrkova said: “All these 140 girls are not only alive, not only not injured, but also were not subjected to the terrible insults that we heard and read about.” After the capture of Zimny, the women were first sent to the Pavlovsk barracks, where some of them were indeed treated badly by the soldiers, but that now most of them are in Levashov, and the rest are scattered in private houses in Petrograd. Another member of the commission testified that not a single woman was thrown from the windows of the Winter Palace, that three were raped, but in the Pavlovsk barracks, and that one volunteer committed suicide by jumping out of a window, and she left a note in which she writes that “ I was disappointed in my ideals."
The slanderers were exposed by the volunteers themselves. “In view of the fact that in a number of places, malicious persons are spreading false, unsubstantiated rumors that allegedly violence and outrages were committed by sailors and Red Guards during the disarmament of the women’s battalion, we, the undersigned,” said the letter from the soldiers of the former women’s battalion, “ We consider it our civic duty to declare that nothing of the sort happened, that it was all lies and slander” (November 4, 1917)
In January 1918, the women's battalions were formally disbanded, but many of their members continued to serve in units of the White Guard armies.
Maria Bochkareva herself took an active part in the White movement. On behalf of General Kornilov, she went to visit Russia’s best “friends” - the Americans - to ask for help to fight the Bolsheviks. We are seeing approximately the same thing today, when various Parubiyas and Semenchenkos go to the same America to ask for money for the war with Donbass and Russia. Then, in 1919, help to Bochkareva, like today’s emissaries of the Kyiv junta, was promised by American senators. Upon returning to Russia on November 10, 1919, Bochkareva met with Admiral Kolchak. On his instructions, she formed a women's sanitary detachment of 200 people. But in the same November 1919, after the capture of Omsk by the Red Army, she was arrested and shot.
Thus ended the “glorious” path of the new idol of our patriotic public.
Women's battalions- military formations consisting exclusively of women, created by the Provisional Government, mainly for the propaganda purpose of raising a patriotic mood in the army and shaming male soldiers who refuse to fight by their own example. Despite this, they participated to a limited extent in the fighting of the First World War. One of the initiators of their creation was Maria Bochkareva.
History of origin
Senior non-commissioned officer M. L. Bochkareva, who was at the front with the Highest permission (since women were prohibited from being sent to units of the active army) from 1914 to 1917, thanks to her heroism, became a famous person. M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a propaganda trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, specifically asked for a meeting with her and took her with him to Petrograd to campaign for “war to a victorious end” in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the congress soldiers' deputies of the Petrograd Soviet. 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 this, she was invited to present her proposal at a meeting of the Provisional Government.
I was told that my idea was great, but I needed to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. Together with Rodzianka, I went to Brusilov’s Headquarters... Brusilov told me in his office that you have hope for women and that the formation of a women’s battalion is the first in the world. Can't women disgrace Russia? I told Brusilov that I myself am not confident in women, but if you give me full authority, then I guarantee that my battalion will not disgrace Russia... Brusilov told me that he believes me and will try in every possible way to help in the formation of a women’s volunteer battalion .
M. L. Bochkareva
The appearance of Bochkareva’s squad served as an impetus for the formation of women’s squads in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to the intensifying processes of destruction of the Russian state, the creation of these female shock troops 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); Marine 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 Bochkareva’s 1st battalion took part in the fighting.
Attitude towards women's battalions
As the Russian historian S.A. Solntseva wrote, the mass of soldiers and the Soviets received the “women’s death battalions” (as well as all other shock units) “with hostility.” The front-line shock workers did not call them anything other than “prostitutes.” At the beginning of July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded that all “women’s battalions” be disbanded as “unsuitable for military service” - moreover, the formation of such battalions was regarded by the Petrograd Soviet as “a secretive maneuver of the bourgeoisie who want to wage the war to a victorious end.”
Let us pay tribute to the memory of the brave. But... there is no place for a woman in the killing fields, where horror reigns, where there is blood, dirt and deprivation, where hearts harden and morals become terribly coarse. There are many ways of public and government service that are much more consistent with a woman’s calling.
Participation in the battles of the First World War
On June 27, 1917, a “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 area of the Novospassky forest, north of the city of Molodechno, near Smorgon.
On July 9, 1917, according to the plans of the Headquarters, the Western Front was supposed to go on the offensive. On July 7, 1917, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock troops, received an order to take positions at the front near the town of Krevo. The "death battalion" was on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, 1917, he entered into battle for the first time, since the enemy, knowing about the plans of the Russian command, launched a preemptive strike and wedged itself into the location of the Russian troops. Over three days, the regiment repelled 14 attacks by German troops. Several times the battalion launched counterattacks and knocked the Germans out of the Russian positions occupied the day before. This is what Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in his report on the actions of the “death battalion”:
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.
According to Bochkareva herself, out of 170 people who took part 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 female battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief, General L.G. Kornilov, by his order banned the creation of new female “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 to be dismissed from the “death units.”
Defense of the Provisional Government
One of the women's death battalions (1st Petrograd, under the command of the Life Guards Kexholm Regiment: 39 Staff Captain A.V. Loskov) in October, together with cadets and other units loyal to the oath of the Februaryists, took part in the defense of the Winter Palace , in which the Provisional Government was located.
On October 25 (November 7), the battalion, stationed near the Levashovo station of the Finnish Railway, was supposed to go to the Romanian front (according to the command’s plans, it was planned 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 orders to send the battalion to Petrograd “for a parade” (in fact, to protect the Provisional Government). Loskov, having learned about the real task and not wanting to drag 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 storming of the palace, the company surrendered, was disarmed and taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier Regiment, where with some shock troops "mistreated"- as a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma established, three shock workers were raped (although, perhaps, few dared to admit it), one committed suicide. On October 26 (November 8), the company was sent to its previous location in Levashovo.
Elimination of women's death battalions
Shape and appearance
The soldiers of Bochkareva’s Women’s Battalion wore the “Adam’s Head” symbol on their chevrons. Women underwent a medical examination and had their hair cut almost bald.
Songs
March forward, forward to battle,
Women soldiers!
The dashing sound calls you into battle,
The adversaries will tremble
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 Alexandra Shatskaya) and Maria Bochkareva.
In February 2015, the Russian feature film “
In the early morning of July 8, 1917, extraordinary excitement reigned at the location of the 525th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Siberian Corps near the Bogushevsky forest in the Molodechno region near Smorgon. Why, on this day the “women” should start fighting the Germans! Laughter, and that's all! They sent a whole battalion of living women - the soldiers were amused. "Women's Death Battalion" is a circus! There was no longer any discipline at the front, order number one of the Provisional Government made itself felt, allowing the privates to choose their own commanders and discuss whether to obey the orders of the officers or not. The commander of the women's battalion, in which iron discipline reigned, wrote this: “... never before have I met such a ragged, unbridled and demoralized bunch of men called soldiers.”
Suddenly, most of the corps refuses to go into battle at all. Endless rallies begin - to fight or not to fight. For the women's battalion such questions did not arise. They were volunteers and were ready to carry out orders at any time. Although artillery preparation had already been carried out and the front lines of the Germans were pretty battered, no one except the women’s battalion was going to go on the attack. Meanwhile, 75 officers who remained faithful to the oath, led by the commander of the 525th regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Ivanov, approached them and asked to join the women's battalion.
Under desperate German fire, the combined unit took the first line of German trenches in the summer and continued to advance on the edge of the Novospassky and Bogushevsky forests. Seeing the heroism of women and officers, the shamed soldiers began to rise to the attack. As a result, the front was broken through for 4 versts and advanced 3.5 versts in depth. But, occupying the German trenches, the soldiers come across huge stocks of beer and vodka. That's all. Drunkenness and looting ensued. The offensive stalled. The regimental report said this:
“...the companies became sensitive and fearful even to their own shots, not to mention enemy fire. A striking example of this in this regard is the lagging position on the western edge of the Novospassky forest, which was abandoned only by rare enemy fire. Even the victory did not bring the soldiers to consciousness; they refused to remove the trophies, but at the same time, many remained on the battlefield and robbed their own comrades. Crowds of soldiers, loaded with German rubbish, went deep into the rear, where trade in German things took place during the battle. The women, judging by the reports, fought as follows: On July 7, the 525th Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Division received an order to move to a position in the Krevo area. The women's battalion included in the regiment was located on the right flank along with the 1st battalion. On the morning of July 9, the regiment reached the edge of the Novospassky forest and came under artillery fire. Over the course of two days, he repelled 14 enemy attacks and, despite heavy machine-gun fire, launched counterattacks several times. According to the testimony of the regiment's officers, the women's battalion behaved heroically in battle, always in the front line, serving on an equal basis with the soldiers. His losses in the battles of July 9-10 were: 2 killed, 33 wounded and shell-shocked, 5 of them seriously, 2 missing.”
General A.I. Denikin later wrote: “What can I say about the “women’s army”?.. I know the fate of Bochkareva’s battalion. He was met by the unbridled soldier environment mockingly and cynically. In Molodechno, where the battalion was originally stationed, at night it had to set 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, having forgotten the technique of loose formation, huddled together - helpless, alone in their section of the field, loosened by German bombs. We suffered losses. And the “heroes” partly returned, and partly did not leave the trenches at all.”
Who is warrant officer Maria Bochkareva, by the way, who was wounded in that memorable battle near Molodechno and promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, and what kind of “women’s death battalion” did she lead?
Maria Bochkareva
In 1919, Bochkareva’s memoirs “Yashka. My life as a peasant, an officer and an exile.” The book is not a reliable source, because it was written from the words of a not particularly literate woman - only at the age of 26 she was able to read syllables for the first time in her life, and then write her name. The book she studied from was a popular detective story in Russia about the American detective Nick Carter.
Maria Bochkareva (Frolkova) was born in July 1889 into the family of Leonty Semenovich and Olga Eleazarovna Frolkova, in the village of Nikolskoye, Kirillovsky district, Novgorod province. Besides her, there were two more daughters in the family. When the girl turned six years old, the family moved to Siberia to receive a plot of land under the resettlement program. Marusya was sent to work as a servant, first to look after the child, then to the shop. At the age of 16, Maria gets married. There is an entry in the book of the Ascension Church dated January 22, 1905: “In his first marriage, Afanasy Sergeevich Bochkarev, 23 years old, of the Orthodox faith, living in the Tomsk province, Tomsk district, Semiluzhskaya volost, the village of Bolshoye Kuskovo,” married “the maiden Maria Leontyeva Frolkova. .. of the Orthodox religion, living in the Tomsk province, Tomsk district, Novo-Kuskovskaya volost, Ksenyevsky village.”
Mary's marriage was not easy. Afanasy drank, she worked hard. She laid pavements in Irkutsk. At first she was a worker, then an assistant foreman. She cannot stand her husband’s drinking bouts, breaks up with him, becomes seriously ill, and loses her job. He is hired again as a servant.
Later, she meets Yankel Buk, falls in love with him, and he becomes her common-law husband. Buk, considered a law-abiding peasant of the Chita district, was engaged in robbery together with Chinese Honghuz bandits. With this money he opens a butcher shop. Maria is happy family life. She has no idea about her husband's criminal business. But in May 1912, Yakov (Yankel) Buk was arrested, exile or hard labor awaited him.
Maria decided to share the fate of her loved one and in May 1913 she went with him on a convoy to Yakutsk. The distribution list for the administrative exile Yankel Gershev Buk reports that by decree of the Irkutsk Governor-General of August 18, 1912, he was expelled “under the public supervision of the police to the Yakut region for the entire duration of martial law in the Trans-Baikal region. Arrived in Yakutsk on July 14, 1913. To prevent Buk from being sent further to Kolymsk, Maria surrendered to the Yakut governor I. Kraft. Having a hard time experiencing her betrayal, she tried to poison herself. Kraft released Buk from prison, but demanded a new meeting with Bochkareva. The unfortunate woman told about Governor Buku, and he decided to kill him. But Buk was arrested in the governor’s office and deported to the Yakut settlement of Amga. Maria followed him again. However, from the memoirs one can understand that the relationship between Mary and Jacob was very tense; he was capable of beating or even killing his faithful wife for the slightest reason.
Now it is difficult to judge the truth of this information, perhaps real facts The life of this amazing woman is intertwined with the journalistic speculation of the American authors of the book, recording the story of her life.
Volunteers
Meanwhile, in August 1914, the First World War began. His personal life did not work out; we know nothing more about the fate of the robber Buk. Maria decided to become a soldier. She recalled: “My heart strove there - into a boiling cauldron, to be baptized in fire, to be tempered in lava. The spirit of sacrifice entered into me. My country was calling me."
Arriving in Tomsk in November 1914, Bochkareva turned to the commander of the 25th reserve battalion with a request to enroll her as a volunteer. Naturally, she is refused. Then she sends a telegram to the Tsar with her last money and, miraculously, receives the highest approval. In February 1915, the regiment formed in Siberia, together with the civilian Bochkareva, was assigned to the 2nd Army near Molodechno. Bochkareva ended up at the front line of the 5th Army Corps, in the 28th Polotsk Regiment of the 7th Division. When asked by her colleagues what to call her, the army then accepted short names and nicknames, Maria, remembering Buk, answered: “Yashka.” This name became her pseudonym for many years.
Maria turned out to be a brave soldier: she pulled the wounded from the battlefield, once pulled fifty people from the battlefield, and she herself was wounded four times. Moreover, she herself went on bayonet attacks in the advanced detachments! She was given the ranks of junior non-commissioned officer and senior non-commissioned officer and was entrusted with platoon command. She was awarded two St. George's crosses, two St. George's medals and the medal "For Bravery".
At the training camp in Levashovo
The February Revolution of 1917 brought discord among the troops and endless glorification of rallies. At one of these events, Bochkareva, who had already become a legendary war hero, met the chairman of the IV State Duma M.V. Rodzianko, who invites her to Petrograd. There, during the congress of soldiers' delegates in the Tauride Palace, the idea came to her (or maybe it was suggested to her) about creating a women's battalion. Bochkareva, known throughout the front, is invited by A.F. Kerensky, she discusses her project with General A.A. Brusilov. Maria spoke at the Mariinsky Palace with an appeal:
“Citizens, everyone who values the freedom and happiness of Russia, hurry into our ranks, hurry, before it’s too late, to stop the decay of our dear homeland. By direct participation in hostilities, not sparing our lives, we, citizens, must raise the spirit of the army and through educational and propaganda work in its ranks, instill a reasonable understanding of the duty of a free citizen to his homeland... The following rules are mandatory for all members of the detachments:
1. Honor, freedom and the good of the homeland are in the foreground;
2. Iron discipline;
3. Firmness and steadfastness of spirit and faith;
4. Courage and bravery;
5. Accuracy, accuracy, perseverance and speed in executing orders;
6. Impeccable honesty and serious attitude to the point;
7. Cheerfulness, politeness, kindness, friendliness, cleanliness and accuracy;
8. Respect for other people's opinions, complete trust in each other and the desire for nobility;
9. Quarrels and personal scores are unacceptable, as they degrade human dignity.”
Bochkareva speaks:
“If I undertake the formation of a women’s battalion, I will be responsible for every woman in it. I will introduce strict discipline and will not allow them to speak or roam the streets. When Mother Russia dies, there is neither time nor need to control the army through committees. Although I am a simple Russian peasant, I know that only discipline can save the Russian army. In the battalion I propose, I will have complete sole authority and seek obedience. Otherwise, there is no need to create a battalion.”
Soon her appeal was published in the newspapers. Many women had a great desire to enlist in the army; soon about two thousand applications fell on the table of the founders of the women's battalion. The Main Directorate of the General Staff took the initiative to divide all volunteers into three categories. The first was to include those who directly fight at the front; the second category is auxiliary units made up of women (communications, security railways); and finally, the third is nurses in hospitals. According to the conditions of admission, any woman aged 16 years (with parental permission) to 40 years old could become a volunteer. At the same time, she had to have an educational qualification and pass a medical examination, which identified and screened out pregnant women.
Women underwent a medical examination and had their hair cut almost bald. On the first day, Bochkareva expels 30 people from the battalion, and on the second - 50. The reasons are common - giggling, flirting with male instructors, failure to follow orders. She constantly encourages women to remember that they are soldiers and take their responsibilities more seriously.
1st Petrograd Women's Battalion
The recruits were quite educated, unlike the bulk of the army, where only a few were literate. And here up to 30 percent turned out to be student students (there were also Bestuzhevkas, graduates of the most prestigious female educational institution) and up to 40 percent had secondary education. There were sisters of mercy, domestic servants, peasants and bourgeois women, and university graduates. There were also representatives of very famous families - Princess Tatueva from a famous Georgian family, Dubrovskaya - the daughter of a general, N.N. was the battalion adjutant. Skrydlova is the daughter of an admiral of the Black Sea Fleet.
On June 21, the “Women's Battalion of Death” - as it was called because of strict discipline and a sincere desire not to spare life to defend the Motherland - was presented with a banner. General L.G. Kornilov presented Maria Bochkareva with a revolver and a saber with a gold hilt, Kerensky read out the order to promote her to ensign. 300 women from the initial recruitment went to the front lines on June 23, being assigned to the 172nd division of the 1st Siberian Corps.
Similar women's volunteer groups began to emerge everywhere. 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion (infantry); Women's naval team in Oranienbaum; Cavalry 1st Petrograd Battalion of the Women's Military Union; Minsk separate guard squad of female volunteers.
At the beginning of 1918, all these formations were disbanded by the Soviet government.
Maria Bochkareva lived another fantastic few years. After the collapse of the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks coming to power, she, on instructions from Lavr Kornilov, went to the United States to ask for help from the allies to fight the new government. A poorly literate woman did not understand the intricacies big politics, but sincerely loved her Motherland. She achieved a meeting with US President Woodrow Wilson, and in Great Britain she met with King George the Fifth. This is how she very naively later talks about this audience during interrogation at the Cheka:
“In mid-August 1918, the king’s secretary arrived in a car and handed me a piece of paper that said that the King of England was receiving me for 5 minutes, and I put on a military officer’s uniform, put on the orders I received in Russia and, with my translator Robinson, went to king's palace She entered the hall, and a few minutes later the door opened and the King of England came out. He bore a great resemblance to Tsar Nicholas II. I went to meet the king. He told me that he was very glad to see the second Joan of Arc and as a friend of Russia, I greet you as a woman who has done a lot for Russia. In response, I told him that I consider it a great happiness to see the king of free England. The king invited me to sit down and sat down opposite me. The king asked what party I belonged to and whom I believed; I said that I don’t belong to any group, but that I only believe in General Kornilov. The king told me the news that Kornilov had been killed; I told the king that I don't know who to believe now, and civil war I don't think about fighting. The king told me: “You are a Russian officer,” I answered him yes; the king then said that “You have a direct duty to go to Russia, to Arkhangelsk, in four days, and I hope for you that you will work.” I told the King of England: “I obey!”
Energetic Maria travels to Arkhangelsk, Siberia, where she organizes and combat battalions and medical teams, meets with Kolchak and other leaders of the White movement. But it is very difficult for a rather naive but honest woman to fully understand where the enemies are and where the friends are. Almost unbearable. The cunning British and other yesterday's allies are turning away from her.
When Soviet power was established in Toska, Maria Bochkareva “Yashka” came to the city commandant in December 1919, handed over a revolver to him and offered her services. The commandant sent her home. However, on January 7, 1920, she was arrested and put in prison, from where she was transferred to Krasnoyarsk in March.
In the conclusion to the final protocol of her interrogation dated April 5, 1920, investigator Pobolotin noted that “the criminal activities of Bochkareva before the RSFSR were proven by the investigation... Bochkarev as an irreconcilable and worst enemy I believe I will transfer the workers’ and peasants’ republic to the disposal of the head of the special department of the Cheka of the 5th army.”
On April 21, 1920, a resolution was passed: “For more information, the case, together with the identity of the accused, should be sent to the Special Department of the Cheka in Moscow.” On May 15, this resolution was revised and a new decision was made: Bochkareva should be shot.
March forward, forward to battle,
Women soldiers!
The dashing sound calls you into battle,
The adversaries will tremble!
(From the song of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion)
Vladimir Kazakov
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 Highest resolution. Thanks to her heroism, by 1917 Maria Bochkareva had become quite famous. Rodzianko, who arrived on the Western Front in April, 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 of 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 themselves of different ages- high school students, student students and representatives of other strata of society - went voluntarily to the front. In the "Bulletin of the Red Cross" in 1915 a story appeared about 12 girls who fought in the Carpathians. They were 14-16 years old. In the very first battles, two 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. It embraced the entire Russian society. It was the sense of patriotism and duty that forced many women to change their elegant outfits to military uniform or the clothes of sisters of mercy. Of no small importance were family circumstances. 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 procedure for the formation of 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 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 of the Russian Revolutionary Army. 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 " shock battalions"(The First Petrograd, commanded by Staff Captain Loskov), together with cadets and other units in October 1917, took part in ensuring the defense of the Winter Palace. 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 the end of the 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 deployment 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 of the Caucasian district to provide further supplies to 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 about the future of the 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.