In Soviet historiography, the term "women's battalion of death" was firmly tied to the history of the capture of the Winter Palace and the flight of the head of the Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky in a woman's dress.
The “women's battalion” itself was presented as a desperate attempt by the bourgeoisie to defend its power by any means, even if for this it is necessary to put women “under arms”.
V real history the female units that appeared in the Russian army in 1917 are much less farce and much more tragic.
Daughter of a peasant, wife of an alcoholic, mistress of a bandit
RIA Novosti / Boris Losin
The appearance of women's battalions is primarily associated with the name Maria Leontievna Bochkareva.
A peasant woman from the Novgorod province, Maria, as a child, moved to Siberia with her parents in search of a better life. But they did not manage to get out of poverty. At the age of 15, Maria was married to Afanasy Bochkareva who was eight years older than her.
The married life of a couple who lived in Tomsk did not work out for the usual reason for Russia - the husband drank unrestrainedly. Mary found consolation in her arms Jacob Buka, a Jewish butcher.
In 1912, when Maria turned 23, her lover was convicted of robbery and sent into exile in Yakutsk. The young woman, showing character, went after him. In Yakutsk, the couple opened a butcher's shop, but banditry remained the main craft of Buk. Apparently, the mistress was well aware of this and even took an active part in the criminal business.
Soon, the police again detained Buk, sending him to the remote Yakut village of Amgu. Out of anguish, Mary's lover started drinking, and this time their relationship ended.
Cross for Courage
It is not known where the curved path would lead Maria Bochkareva, but on August 1, 1914, the First World War began. The 25-year-old woman, returning to Tomsk, turned to the commander of the 25th reserve battalion with a request to enroll her in the regular army. The commander offered her the position of a sister of mercy, but Bochkareva said that she wanted to fight with weapons in her hands.
Tired of the annoying petitioner, the battalion commander advised the woman what is always advised in Russia in such cases - to go up.
Commander of the women's "death battalion" Maria Bochkareva. 1917 Photo: RIA Novosti
Maria Bochkareva spent the last money on a telegram to the emperor, and received ... a positive response.
Bochkareva, who asked her colleagues to call her "Yashka", was enrolled in a unit that was soon sent to the front.
“Yashka” did not pay any attention to ridicule and harassment - it was difficult to confuse or frighten a woman who lived with a butcher who traded in banditry.
And at the front, Bochkareva very quickly earned respect for her desperate courage and perseverance. The jokes about her stopped by themselves. She pulled out wounded comrades from the battlefield, went into bayonet attacks, was wounded several times and was awarded the St. George's Cross, as well as three medals. By 1917, she was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer.
For Maria Bochkareva, the war became the main meaning of life. She did not understand and did not accept the changes and revolutionary ferments taking place around them. Calls for an end to the war, fraternization with the enemy seemed completely unthinkable to NCO Bochkareva.
Propaganda weapon
After the February Revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government declared its loyalty to allied commitments and proclaimed the slogan "War to a Victorious End."
This slogan was not popular. The soldiers were tired of the war, and against the background of revolutionary events in the units, a real collapse began.
The provisional government frantically looked for ways to strengthen the morale of the troops. The name of Maria Bochkareva by that time thundered throughout the country and was respected. One of the leaders of the February Revolution Mikhail Rodzianko, who went to the Western Front in April 1917 with a difficult mission of agitating for the continuation of the war, wished to meet with Bochkareva. After talking with her, the politician took Bochkareva to Petrograd to participate in agitation.
Maria Bochkareva, Emmeline Pankhurst and soldiers of the Women's Battalion. Photo: wikipedia.org
At a meeting of the Congress of Soldiers' Deputies of the Petrograd Soviet, Maria Bochkareva for the first time expressed the idea of creating women's volunteer battalions.
The Provisional Government immediately seized upon this idea. Women who voluntarily took up arms and fighting the enemy should inspire by their example the discouraged men - the ministers considered.
Bochkarev was taken to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Alexey Brusilov... The general, under whose command the famous breakthrough was carried out, was not very enthusiastic about the idea, but, nevertheless, promised help in the formation of the unit, if there was a government decision.
Women's appeal
The number of volunteers who responded to the idea was measured in several thousand. Among them were women who, like Bochkareva, ended up in the army with the special permission of the emperor, natives of Cossack families, as well as military families. There were many representatives of noble families, teachers, and student students.
Women's battalions of death. June 1917 - November 1918. At the hairdresser's. Haircut bald. Photo. Summer 1917 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
In Bochkareva's unit, the most severe discipline was established: getting up at five in the morning, classes until ten in the evening, a short rest and a simple soldier's lunch. Political conversations and other campaigning were strictly prohibited. Bochkareva sometimes beat the violators of the order personally.
Some of those who signed up for the battalion, primarily the ladies from the intelligentsia, could not bear such an attitude, leaving it.
On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony was held to present a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." Finally, the provision "On the formation military units of female volunteers ”was approved on June 29th.
From June to October 1917, a number of female units were formed: 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion, Marine Women's Team, Cavalry 1st Petrograd Battalion of the Women's Military Union , Minsk separate guard squad of female volunteers.
The Commander of the Petrograd Military District, General P. A. Polovtsov, inspects the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The first battle
Of these units, only the first three battalions were sent to the active army, of which only the unit of Maria Bochkareva visited the battle.
The women's battalion set off for the front on June 23, 1917, and finally made a solemn march through Petrograd. On June 27, 200 women arrived at the rear units of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army of the Western Front in the Novospassky forest area, north of the city of Molodechno, near Smorgon.
For Maria Bochkareva herself, the specific attitude of male soldiers was commonplace, but for many of her subordinates, ridicule, insults and harassment came as a shock.
On July 7, 1917, the battalion, included in the 525th Kyuryuk-Darinsky Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, took up positions on the right flank of the regiment near the town of Krevo.
Seeing off the women's battalion of death in Moscow. Summer 1917 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
On July 9, the offensive of the Western Front was to begin, on the success of which the Provisional Government made a big stake.
However, on July 8, German troops, aware of the plans of the Russians, struck a preemptive blow. The 525th regiment found itself in the direction of the main attack of the Germans.
For three days of fighting, the regiment repelled 14 enemy attacks. The women fought on a par with the men, and rose in counterattacks.
From admiration to hate
General Denikin, who was extremely skeptical of the idea of women's battalions, admitted that Bochkareva's unit had shown exceptional heroism. According to Denikin's recollections, in one of the counterattacks, the women managed to knock the Germans out of the previously occupied Russian trenches, but did not receive the support of the men.
Female drummers during exercises at a summer camp. Field kitchen Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
“And when the pitch hell of enemy artillery fire broke out, the poor women, having forgotten the technique of loose fighting, huddled together - helpless, alone in their part of the field, loosened by German bombs,” the general wrote.
According to Maria Bochkareva, out of 170 female soldiers who went through the heat of these battles, 30 were killed and 70 wounded. Bochkareva herself was wounded for the fifth time and spent a month and a half in the hospital.
Upon leaving the hospital, Maria Bochkareva, who was awarded the rank of second lieutenant, the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief Lavr Kornilov ordered an inspection of the female units.
The leadership of the military formation. Summer 1917. In the photo M. Bochkareva sits on the far left. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The results of the review were disappointing for Bochkarev - the combat readiness of the units was at an extremely low level.
On August 14, 1917, General Kornilov, proceeding from the large losses incurred by the battle Bochkareva, prohibited the creation of new female "death battalions" for combat use, and already created parts were prescribed to be used only in auxiliary areas.
The "women's battalions" did not fulfill their main task - they did not manage to inspire the men. Only those who fought next to them were imbued with respect for the fighting women, but even there, as General Denikin's memoirs testify, the men did not rush to attack after them.
Basically, the soldiers took the women’s enthusiasm with hostility, sending insults to them, of which the softest was “prostitutes”.
The "women's battalion" was brought to the Winter Palace under the pretext of a parade
It is impossible to ignore the history of the notorious "women's battalion", which defended the Winter Palace during October revolution. It is about the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, commanded by staff captain Loskov.
A battalion stationed in the area of Finlyandskaya Levashov station railroad, On October 25 he was preparing to leave for the Romanian front. However, on October 24, the battalion was suddenly summoned to Petrograd for a parade.
Kombat Loskov, who knew about the turbulent situation in the city, already in Petrograd managed to find out that the battalion was planned to be used to protect the Winter Palace from a possible Bolshevik action.
On the square in front of the Winter Palace. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Loskov did not want to interfere with his subordinates in politics, and led the battalion back to Levashovo, with the exception of the 2nd company. Thus, 137 fighters of the "women's battalion" remained in Petrograd.
The forces at the disposal of the Provisional Government in the capital were clearly insufficient to suppress the armed uprising. For example, the task of opening bridges and controlling them was entrusted to two platoons of a female company and junkers. The timid attempt to seize the bridges was easily suppressed by the revolutionary sailors.
As a result, the women's company took up defensive positions on the first floor of the Winter Palace in the area to the right of the main gate to Millionnaya Street.
"The case of revolutionary rape"
As you know, the storming of the Winter Palace looked far from as colorful as shown in the classic film. Sergei Eisenstein"October". Most of the units that remained loyal to the Provisional Government did not put up serious resistance to the superior forces of the Bolsheviks. The female company also surrendered.They still argue about what happened to these women further. Anti-Bolshevik propaganda vividly described how women from the "death squad" were gang raped, cut with knives and thrown out of windows.
Such rumors are, to put it mildly, exaggerated. On the other hand, the possibility of violence cannot be completely denied. A specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma, which interviewed women from the company that defended the Winter Palace, stated: three women testified that they had been raped. Another of the female soldiers committed suicide, but she called the reason for this step in her farewell note "disillusionment with ideals."
Volunteers on the square in front of the Winter Palace. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
There were no bloody massacres of women and their throwing out of the windows of the Winter Palace for sure.
However, some historians believe that the accusations of rape voiced by members of the Petrograd Duma were part of an information war against the Bolsheviks who came to power.
The next day after the storming of the winter one, the female company returned to the battalion's location in Levashovo.
To be disbanded
Maria Bochkareva had only an indirect relationship to all these events. Among the subordinates of the battalion commander Loskov were those ladies who left Bochkareva's command because of the strict discipline she had established. She herself did not take part in the defense of the Winter Palace.The Bolshevik government, which embarked on a course of withdrawing from the war, did not need units of volunteers who wanted to continue the war to a victorious end. The decision to disband the battalions was made on November 30, 1917.
The last to be disbanded was the 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion, which ceased to exist on February 26, 1918 due to a supply cutoff.
Many former volunteers of the "women's battalions" joined the ranks of the White Army. In the outbreak of the Civil War, many women fought on both sides of the front, some even commanded men, but no separate combat units were formed from them.
Maria Bochkareva, having disbanded her battalion, went home to Tomsk. On the way, she was detained by the Bolsheviks, and almost came under a tribunal for counter-revolutionary agitation, but the intercession of her former colleagues helped.
Tour of "Russian Jeanne d'Arc"
Maria Bochkareva in the USA, 1918. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
There are several versions about her further fate. Some argue that she herself joined the ranks of whites, others insist that Bochkareva was not going to participate in the Civil War, but she was pressured.
Be that as it may, Maria Bochkareva arrived in Vladivostok, from where she went to the United States, in order to agitate Western politicians for helping the White movement.
Her life story made an impression, in the United States she found the patronage of influential people who arranged for her an audience with the President of the United States Woodrow Wilson... Journalist Isaac Don Levin in 1919, based on her stories, published a book about Bochkareva called "Yashka".
Bochkareva moved from the USA to Great Britain, where she was received by the king himself George V.
Returning to Russia, she got from Arkhangelsk to Siberia, where she met with Kolchak, who proposed to Bochkareva to form a female military sanitary detachment. "Yashka" agreed, but the days of Kolchak himself were already numbered, and the formation of the detachment did not even begin.
Shooting with unknowns
When Tomsk was occupied by units of the Red Army, Bochkareva herself appeared to the new commandant of the city, introduced herself, and handed over her revolver. At first, she was released on recognizance not to leave, but on January 7, 1920, she was arrested and then sent to Krasnoyarsk.
Unlike the first arrest, now the accusations of "counter-revolutionary activities" were more weighty - a campaign trip in support of the White Army to the USA and Great Britain, an audience with Kolchak ...But Bochkareva told about all her deeds and actions very frankly, which caused some confusion among the Chekists. Moreover, all these trips and audiences were not direct participation in the war against the Bolsheviks.
The proceedings in the case of Maria Bochkareva, by the standards of the Civil War, dragged on indefinitely. On April 21, 1920, the Special Department of the 5th Army decided to transfer Bochkarev to the Special Department of the Cheka of Moscow for a final decision.
But at this time, the deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka arrived in Tomsk. Pavlunovsky, endowed with emergency powers.
Pavlunovsky, having familiarized himself with the case materials, on May 15, 1920, made a decision - to shoot Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna.
On the cover of the Bochkareva case, a note was made that the sentence was carried out on May 16. But in 1992, when the Russian prosecutor's office was reviewing Bochkareva's case, it suddenly turned out that there was no evidence of her execution.
There is a version that the journalist Isaac Don Levin, the author of a book about her, was able to achieve her release and took Bochkareva to Harbin, where she married a former fellow soldier and devoted herself to raising his children from her first marriage. According to this version, the Bochkareva family, who by that time bore a different surname, was forcibly deported to the USSR in 1927, where she spent last years life.
This story seems implausible. But wasn't the whole life of Maria Bochkareva just as implausible?
"Sometimes there are no names left from the heroes of the past ..." These lines of a popular song can be safely attributed to the fate of the creator of the first women's shock battalion, Maria Bochkareva.
During her lifetime, the fame of this amazing woman was so great that many stars of modern politics and show business could envy her. Reporters vied with each other to interview her, illustrated magazines placed on the covers of her photographs and enthusiastic articles about the "woman-hero." But, alas, after several years, only Mayakovsky's scornful lines about the "Bochkarev's fools" who foolishly 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 drunkard worker, a friend 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 had learned the basics of literacy only by the end of her life, had a chance in her lifetime to meet with the head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky, two supreme commanders of the Russian army - A.A. Brusilov and L.G. Kornilov. "Russian Jeanne d, Ark" was officially received by US President Woodrow Wilson and English king George V.
Maria was born in July 1889 in Siberia in a peasant family. In 1905, she married 23-year-old Afanasy Bochkarev. Married life almost immediately did not work out, and Bochkareva parted with her drunken husband without regret. It was then that she met her "fatal love" in the person of a certain Yankel (Yakov) Buk, who, according to the documents, was listed as a peasant, but in fact was a robber 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 on stage to Yakutsk. But in the settlement, Yakov continued to do his previous business - he bought stolen goods and even participated in the attack on the post office.
So that Buk would not be sent even further to Kolymsk, Maria agreed to yield to the harassment of the Yakut governor. But, unable to survive the betrayal, she tried to poison herself, and then she told Buk everything. Yakov was hardly tied up in the governor's office, where he went to kill the seducer, then he was again convicted and sent to the remote Yakut village of Amga. Maria turned out to be the only Russian woman here. True, her former relationship with her lover has not been restored ...
When the first one began World War, Maria decided to finally break with Yankel and go to the army as a soldier. In November 1914, in Tomsk, she appealed to the commander of the 25th reserve battalion. He invited her to go to the front as a sister of mercy, but Maria continued to insist on her own. An annoying supplicant is given ironic advice: 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 the permission of Nicholas II. She was enrolled in a civilian soldier. According to an unwritten rule, soldiers gave each other nicknames. Remembering Buk, Maria asks to call herself Yashka.
Yashka fearlessly went into bayonet attacks, pulled out the wounded from the battlefield, 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.
The February revolution turned the world familiar to Mary: endless rallies were held in the positions, fraternization with the enemy began. Thanks to an unexpected acquaintance with the chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, MV Rodzianko, who came to the front for speeches, Bochkareva found herself in Petrograd in early May 1917. Here she is trying to realize an unexpected bold idea - to create special military units from female volunteers and together with them continue to defend the Motherland. Before that, there were no such units in any of the countries that participated in the world war.
Bochkareva's initiative was approved by Minister of War A.F. Kerensky and 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 supported by patriotic women public organizations... More than two thousand women responded to the call of Bochkareva and the Women's Union for Aid to the Motherland. By order of Kerensky, women soldiers were allocated a separate room on Torgovaya Street, and ten experienced instructors were dispatched to train them in military formation and the use of weapons. Food was brought to the "shock women" from the barracks of the nearby 2nd Baltic naval crew.
Initially, it was even assumed that with the first detachment of women volunteers, Kerensky's wife Olga would go to the front as a sister of mercy, who pledged "to remain in the trenches all the time if necessary." But, running ahead, let's say that the "lady minister" never got to the trenches ...
Numerous publications and photo reports have depicted the lives of female soldiers in very idyllic colors. The reality, alas, was more prosaic and harsh. Maria established strict discipline in the battalion: getting up at five in the morning, classes until ten in the evening, a short rest and a simple soldier's lunch. "Intelligent persons" soon began to complain that Bochkareva was too rude and "beats in the face like a real sergeant-major of the old regime." In addition, she forbade any councils and committees to be organized in her battalion and party agitators from appearing there. Supporters of "democratic transformations" even turned to the commander of the Petrograd military district, General PA Polovtsev, but in vain: "She (Bochkareva. - AK)," he wrote in his memoirs "Days of the Eclipse", - fiercely and expressively waving with a fist, says that let the dissatisfied get out, that she wants to have a disciplined part. "
In the end, a split occurred in the battalion being formed - about 300 women remained with Bochkareva, and the rest formed an independent shock battalion. Ironically, some of the "shock women" 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 us return to the Bochkarev's "shock women" proper. On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony of presenting a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva" was held. This day is captured in the second photo from the museum collection. On the left flank of the detachment, wearing a brand new warrant officer's uniform (she was promoted to the first officer's rank by a special order of Kerensky) stood an agitated Maria: “I thought that all eyes were fixed on me alone. The Petrograd Archbishop Benjamin and the Ufa Archbishop admonished our death battalion with the image of the Tikhvin Mother of God. It is finished, there is a front ahead! " Finally, the battalion marched in a solemn march through the streets of Petrograd, where it was greeted by thousands of people, although insulting shouts were heard in the crowd.
On June 23, an unusual military unit went to the front. Life immediately dispelled the romance. Initially, they even had to put sentries at the battalion's barracks: the revolutionary soldiers pestered the "women" with unequivocal proposals. The battalion received the baptism of fire in fierce battles with the Germans near Smorgon in early July 1917. One of the reports from the command said that "Bochkareva's detachment behaved heroically in battle," set an example of "courage, courage and calmness." And even one of the leaders of the white movement, General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, who was very skeptical about such "surrogates of the army", admitted that the women's battalion "valiantly went on the attack", not supported by other units.
In one of the battles on July 9, Bochkareva was wounded and sent to the Petrograd hospital. After her 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. Inspection of the Moscow battalion showed its complete non-combat capability. 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 coup, Bochkareva, at the direction of the Soviet government, was forced to dismiss her battalion home, and she again went to Petrograd. In Smolny, one of the representatives of the new regime (she herself claimed that it was Lenin or Trotsky) persuaded Maria for a long time that she should stand up to 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 - "I do not accept military affairs 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 engage in the formation of combat units. For refusal, the angry general ordered to arrest Bochkarev, and he was stopped only by the intervention of the British allies ...
However, Bochkareva still sided with White. On behalf of General Kornilov, she made her way through civil war-torn Russia with forged documents in the clothes of a sister of mercy 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 by her wanderings, Maria Leontyevna came to ask for resignation, but he persuaded Bochkarev 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" and his army were already numbered. Bochkareva's detachment turned out to be of no use to anyone.
When the Red Army occupied Tomsk, Bochkareva herself appeared to the commandant of the city, handed him a revolver and offered her cooperation to the Soviet government. The commandant took her recognizance not to leave and let her go home. On Christmas night 1920, she was arrested and then sent to Krasnoyarsk. Bochkareva gave frank and ingenuous answers to all the questions of the investigator, which put the Chekists in a difficult position. It was not possible to find any clear evidence of her "counter-revolutionary activities"; 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 person of the accused, should be sent to the Special Department of the Cheka in Moscow."
Perhaps this promised a favorable outcome as a result, especially since by the decision of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, the death penalty in the RSFSR was once again abolished. But, unfortunately, the deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka I.P. Pavlunovsky arrived in Siberia, endowed with extraordinary powers. The "Moscow representative" did not understand what confused the local security officers in the case of our heroine. On the decree, he wrote a short resolution: "Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna - to shoot." On May 16, 1920, the sentence was carried out. "Russian Jeanne d, Ark" was in its thirty-first year.
There are so many legends about this amazing woman that it does not allow one hundred percent to say whether this is true or fiction. But it is reliably known that an ordinary peasant woman, who remained illiterate for almost her entire adult life, was called by King George V during a personal meeting "the Russian Jeanne d" Arc. ”She was destined to become the first female officer in Russian army... The whole truth about the women's death battalion is in our article.
Youth, childhood, love
The creator of the women's death battalion, Maria Bochkareva, was born in a small village in the Novgorod province into an ordinary working-class family. The parents, in addition to her, had two more children. They lived quite poorly, and in order to improve their deplorable situation, they decided to move to Siberia, where at that time the government provided assistance to newcomers. But hopes were not justified, so it was customary to marry Mary off to a man whom she did not love, and who, moreover, was a drunkard. From him she got a well-known surname.
After a short period of time, Maria Bochkareva (the women's battalion of death was her idea) breaks up with her husband and begins a free life. It was at that time that she was lucky enough to meet her first and only love. Unfortunately, she was not at all lucky with the stronger sex: if the first was constantly drinking, then the second was a criminal and a member of a gang of "hunghuz", which included immigrants from Manchuria, as well as from China. His name was Yankel Buk. When he was arrested and redirected to Yakutsk, Bochkareva followed him, as the wives of the Decembrists did.
The sad outcome of the relationship
But the desperate Jacob could not be corrected, and even while in the settlement, he sold stolen goods, and later took up robberies. To prevent her beloved from going to hard labor, Mary had to follow the lead of the local governor, who harassed her. Subsequently, she could not survive her own betrayal, trying to poison herself. This difficult story ended in tears: upon learning about what had happened, the man, in the heat of anger, tried to kill the official. He was put on trial and sent to an unknown destination, after which the connection with his beloved was lost.
To the front by imperial grace
The outbreak of the war led to an unprecedented surge of patriotic feelings. A huge number of volunteers went to the front, and Maria Leontyevna Bochkareva did the same. The story of her entry into the service is quite interesting. Arriving in 1914 to the commander of the reserve battalion, which was located in Tomsk, she was faced with a devil-may-care attitude and ironic advice to make a similar request to the emperor. Contrary to his expectations, the woman dared to write a petition. To the surprise of the public, she soon received a positive response signed by Nicholas II.
After an accelerated training course, in February of the following year, Maria Leontyevna Bochkareva was at the front in the position of a civilian soldier. Taking on such a difficult task, she, along with the rest of the soldiers, went into bayonet attacks, helped the wounded escape from the fire, and also showed real heroism. She was given the nickname Yashka, which she invented for herself in honor of her lover.
When death overtook the company commander in March 1916, Maria took his post and led her comrades into an offensive that became crushing. For the courage that was shown in the offensive, the woman received the St. George Cross, as well as three medals. Being at the forefront, she was wounded more than once, but despite this, she was still in the ranks. Only after being severely wounded in the thigh was she sent to the hospital, where she spent several months.
Creation of women's battalions of death
Returning to service, Bochkareva found her own regiment in absolute decay. During the time she was absent, the February Revolution took place, and the soldiers endlessly held meetings and tried to "fraternize" with the Germans. Maria, who did not want to put up with such a situation, did not tire of looking for an opportunity to influence the situation. Very soon a similar case presented itself.
To carry out campaign work, the chairman of the Interim Committee of the State Duma was sent to the front. Bochkareva, enlisting his support, went to Petrograd, where she began to implement her old idea - the discovery military formations, which included women who were ready to defend the Motherland. In her endeavor, she felt the support of the Minister of War Kerensky, as well as Brusilov, who is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief General. This is how the story of the women's death battalion began.
The composition of the battalion
In response to the calls of a courageous woman, several thousand Russian women responded, who wanted to join the ranks of the new unit, arms in hand. It is worth noting the fact that most of them were literate girls - graduates of the Bestuzhev courses, and a third had a secondary education. Such indicators for that period could not be shown by any division consisting of men. Among the shock women were representatives of all strata of society - from simple peasant women to aristocrats (carriers of high-profile surnames).
Among the subordinates in the women's death battalion (1917), the commander Bochkareva immediately established strict discipline and strict subordination. The rise took place at five in the morning, and up to ten in the evening there were constant classes with a little rest. Many women who previously lived in fairly well-to-do families found it difficult to accept the soldier's life and the approved routine. But that was not their biggest difficulty.
Commander complaints
According to the sources, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief soon began to receive complaints regarding arbitrariness, as well as rude treatment on the part of the commander of the women's death battalion in the First World War. The reports noted the facts of beatings. In addition, under a strict ban was the appearance within its walls of agitators leading political activity, representatives of all kinds of parties, which was a violation of the rules adopted as a result of the uprising. As a result a large number disagreements 250 shock women left the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion and transferred to another formation.
Sending to the front
Soon came the twenty-first of June 1917, the day when in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral, in front of a large public, the newly created part was honored to receive battle banner... Needless to say, what emotions the "hero" of the occasion, who stood in a new uniform, experienced.
But the holiday was replaced by trench life. Young defenders faced realities that they had never even known about before. They found themselves at the center of morally decayed and degrading soldiers. In order to protect them from violence, sometimes it was necessary to post sentries on duty at the barracks. But after the first real battle, where Maria's battalion took a direct part, showing unprecedented courage, they began to be treated with respect.
Hospital and inspection of new units
The Women's Death Battalion in World War I took part in operations along with other units and suffered losses. Maria Bochkareva, who received a severe concussion on July 9, was sent to Petrograd for treatment. During the period that she spent at the front, her ideas about the women's patriotic movement found a wide response in the capital. New formations were created, which were staffed by the defenders of the Fatherland.
After being discharged from the hospital, by order of Kornilov, Bochkareva was given the task to check such units. The results of the inspection were extremely negative. None of the battalions were truly combat battalions. However, the atmosphere of turmoil that hovered in Moscow did not allow achieving any tangible results in a short time.
Soon, the initiator of the creation of women's death battalions is sent to her home unit, but right now her fighting spirit is cooling down a little. She has repeatedly said that she was disappointed in her subordinates, and believes that they should not be sent to the front. Maybe her demands on her subordinates were too high, and what she - a military officer - coped with without problems, was beyond the capabilities of ordinary women.
Features of the lethal part
In view of the fact that all these events were close to the episode with the defense of the Winter Palace (government residence), it is worthwhile to understand in more detail what the military unit was then, the creator of which was Bochkareva. In accordance with the law, the female death battalion ( historical facts this is confirmed) was equated to an independent unit and in its status corresponded to a regiment in which 1000 fighters served.
The officer corps included representatives of the strong half, who had considerable experience gained on the fronts of the First World War. The battalion was not supposed to have a political color. Its main purpose is to protect the Fatherland from outside enemies.
Palace defense
Suddenly, one of the divisions of the women's battalion of death in the First World War is ordered to go to Petrograd, where the parade was to take place on October twenty-fourth. In reality, this was only an excuse to attract shock women to defend the facility against the Bolsheviks' offensive with weapons in their hands. During this period, the garrison of the palace was a subdivision of Cossacks and cadets, so it had no real military power.
The women who arrived at the scene were ordered to defend the southeast wing of the building. For the first day, they managed to push the Red Guards back and take the Nikolaevsky bridge into their own hands. But a day later, the troops of the revolutionary committee settled around the building, the result was a fierce clash.
It was after this that the defenders of the residence, not wanting to give their lives for the newly appointed government, began to withdraw from their positions. The women managed to withstand the longest, and only by ten o'clock the negotiators were sent out with a statement of surrender. Such an opportunity was provided, but only on terms of complete disarmament.
The arrival of the Bolsheviks and further events
After an armed coup in October, a decision was made to disband the women's battalion for the death of the First World War, but it was dangerous to return home in uniform. Not without the participation of the Security Committee, the women managed to find civilian clothes to get to their homes.
It is confirmed that during the events described, Maria Leontyevna was at the front and did not take part in them. Despite this, there is a myth that she commanded the defenders of the palace.
In the future, fate threw up many more unpleasant surprises. During the outbreak of the civil war, Bochkareva was caught between two fires. At first, in Smolny, the higher ranks of the new government persuaded her to take command of the Red Guard unit. After that, Marushevsky, the commander of the White Guards, also tried to win her over to his side. But everywhere she refused: one thing is to fight against foreigners and defend their homeland, another thing is to kill their own compatriots. Maria almost paid for her refusal with freedom.
Legendary life
After the capture of Tomsk, Bochkareva herself came to the commandant's office to surrender her weapons. After some time, she was taken into custody and sent to Krasnoyarsk. The investigators were in a state of prostration, not knowing what to show her. But the head of the special department Pavlunovsky arrives in the city from the capital. Without even trying to study the situation superficially, he makes a decision - to shoot, which was done. Maria Bochkareva was killed on May 16, 1919.
But her life was so unusual that her death gave rise to a huge number of legends. It is impossible to say exactly where the grave of Maria Leontyeva is located. Because of this, rumors appeared that she managed to avoid being shot, and she lived until the forties, taking for herself a completely different name.
But the main legend, of course, remains the woman herself, according to whose biography a breathtaking cinematic novel can be shot.
In different historical eras and in different parts light, when, due to constant wars, the ranks of men were greatly thinned out, women created their own fighting squads. In Russia during the First World War, the so-called women's death battalions also appeared. The head of the first such unit was Maria Bochkareva, one of the most unhappy and extraordinary women of that difficult time.
How was the life of the future heroine
Maria Leontievna Frolkova was born in 1889 in the Novgorod region into a very poor peasant family. When Marusa was six years old, the family moved to Tomsk in search of a better life, since the government promised considerable benefits to the migrants to Siberia. But hopes were not justified. At 8 years old, the girl was given "to the people". Marusya worked from morning till night, suffered constant hunger and beatings.
In her early youth, Maria met Lieutenant Vasily Lazov. In an effort to escape from the hopeless environment 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 received a concussion. Then, at the age of 15, Maria was married to a veteran Japanese war Afanasy Bochkareva. The marriage was unsuccessful: the husband drank heavily and beat his young wife. Maria tried to escape from him and somehow settle in life, but her husband found her, returned her home and everything continued as before. The girl has repeatedly tried to commit suicide. The last time she was saved by the robber and gambler Yankel Buk, who is part of the international gang of hunghuz. He didn't give her a glass of vinegar to drink. Maria became his concubine.
Some time later, Yankel Buk was caught and exiled. Bochkareva followed him into exile. But there he also began to drink and engage in assault. There is evidence that once Buk, suspecting his girlfriend of treason, tried to hang her. Maria realized that she had fallen into another trap, and her active nature began to look for a way out. She went to the police station, where she spoke about the many unsolved crimes of her roommate. 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 enroll her as a soldier. The commander laughed it off and advised her to contact the emperor himself. However, the existence of Mary was so terrible that she really decided to take this step: she found a person who helped her compose and send Nicholas II a telegram in which she asked to enroll her in the active army. Apparently, a professional wrote the telegram, because the tsar agreed to such a violation of army discipline.
Living among soldiers and participating in battles
When Maria Bochkareva got to the front, her fellow soldiers took her ironically. Her military nickname was "Yashka" after her second husband. Maria recalled that she spent the first night in the barracks, handing out cuffs to her comrades-in-arms. She tried to visit not a soldier's bathhouse, but a city one, where something heavy was thrown into her from the doorway, mistaking for a man. Later, Maria began to wash with her squad, occupying the far corner, turning her back and threatening to scald in case of harassment. Soon the soldiers got used to her and stopped scoffing, recognizing her as "their", sometimes even for the sake of a joke they took her with them to the brothel.
After all the ordeals, Mary had nothing to lose, but she got a chance to advance and improve her social status. She showed considerable courage in battles and pulled out from under fire fifty wounded. She herself was wounded four times. Returning from the hospital, she received the most cordial welcome in the unit, probably for the first time in her life being in a friendly environment. She was promoted to senior non-commissioned officers and awarded the St. George Cross and three medals.
1st Women's Death Battalion
In 1917, Duma deputy Mikhail Rodzianko submitted the idea of creating a female military brigade. The front was falling apart, cases of flight from the battlefield and desertion were massive. Rodzianko hoped that the example of fearless patriotic women would inspire the soldiers and rally the Russian army.
Maria Bochkareva became the commander of the women's death battalion. More than 2,000 women responded to her call, wishing to defend the country with arms in hand. Many of them were from among the romantic Petersburg schoolgirls, carried away by patriotic ideas and having absolutely no idea of real military life, but willingly posed in a soldier's uniform in front of photographers. Bochkareva, seeing this, immediately demanded from her subordinates strict observance of her requirements: unquestioning obedience, no jewelry and a haircut bald. There were also complaints about the heavy hand of Mary, who could, in the best traditions of sergeant-major, slap in the face. Dissatisfied with such orders quickly dropped out, and in the battalion there were 300 girls of various origins: from those born in peasant families to noblewomen. Bochkareva's adjutant was Maria Skrydlova, the daughter of a famous admiral. The ethnic composition was different: Russians, Latvians, Estonians, Jews and even one Englishwoman.
The women's battalion was escorted to the front by about 25 thousand men of the St. Petersburg garrison, who themselves were in no hurry to put their foreheads under the bullet. Alexander Kerensky personally presented the squad with a banner on which it was written: "The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." Their emblem was a skull with crossbones: not a pirate sign, but a symbol of Calvary and the atonement of humanity's sins.
How women warriors were perceived
At the front, the girls had to fight off the soldiers: many perceived the female replenishment exclusively as legal prostitutes. Prostitutes accompanying the army often dressed in semblance military uniform, so the girls' ammunition did not stop anyone. Their fighting disposition was besieged by hundreds of fellow soldiers, who had no doubt that an official brothel had arrived.
But that was before the first battles. Bochkareva's detachment arrived at Smorgon and on July 8, 1914 entered the battle for the first time. In three days, the women's death battalion repelled 14 German attacks. Several times the girls went into counterattacks, engaged in hand-to-hand combat and knocked out the German units from their positions. Commander Anton Denikin was impressed by female heroism.
Rodzianko's calculations did not materialize: the male combat units continued to take cover in the trenches while the girls rose to the attack. The battalion lost 30 soldiers, injured about 70. 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 retreated to the rear. After the October coup, on the initiative of Bochkareva, her detachment was disbanded.
Alternative Schoolgirl Battalion
Those girls who were weeded out by Bochkareva created the Petrograd Women's Death Battalion. Here it was allowed to use makeup, wear smart underwear and have beautiful hair. The composition was fundamentally different: in addition to romantic graduates of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, adventurers of various kinds joined the battalion, 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 the Winter Palace was taken by the revolutionaries, this detachment did not put up 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 them without any respect, raped them, and soon the Petrograd women's battalion was disbanded.
Refusal to cooperate with the Bolsheviks in favor of the White Guards
After the October coup, Lenin and Trotsky considered Maria Bochkareva a suitable candidate for organizing the Soviet women's movement. However, Maria refused, motivating her decision by her unwillingness to continue to take part in the battles. She went over to the side of the White movement, but did not really participate in the hostilities and made an attempt to leave for her relatives in Tomsk. On the way, Bochkareva was seized by the Bolsheviks, from whom she managed to escape dressed as a sister of mercy. Having reached Vladivostok, the Russian Amazon left for San Francisco. In America, she was supported by one of the leaders of the suffragette movement - the wealthy Florence Harriman. She organized Mary's tour throughout the country with lectures. In 1918, Bochkareva was received by President Woodrow Wilson, whom she asked for help in the fight against the Bolsheviks. It is known that the head of the White House shed tears after the Russian Amazon told him about the vicissitudes of her difficult fate.
Then Mary arrived in London and was honored to speak with King George. The latter promised her financial and military support. With the British military corps, she returned to her homeland. From Arkhangelsk, she went to the capital of the White Guards Omsk, joining the army of Alexander Kolchak, who invited her to form a female detachment. This attempt was unsuccessful. By the way, Kolchak, according to Maria, was too indecisive, as a result of which the Bolsheviks everywhere went on the offensive.
Riddles of an extraordinary fate
There are different versions about the arrest of Mary. According to one of them, she voluntarily appeared in the Cheka and surrendered her weapons. In any event, on January 7, 1920, she was arrested. The investigation process lasted for several months, the court hesitated when making a decision. It is believed that on May 16, 1921, Bochkareva was shot in Krasnoyarsk by the resolution of the Chekists Ivan Pavlunovsky and Isaac Shimanovsky. However, it is known that Maria had influential defenders and an active struggle was going on for her release. Her biographer S.V. Drokov believes that the execution order remained only on paper and was not carried out, and in fact this extraordinary woman was rescued by an American journalist from Odessa, Isaac Levin. This version says that Maria subsequently met one of her former brother-soldiers, a widower with children, and married him.
Women's battalions are military formations composed exclusively of women, created by the Provisional Government, mainly for propaganda purposes - to raise patriotic mood in the army and to shame by their own example male soldiers who refuse to fight. Despite this, they took part in the hostilities of the First World War to a limited extent. 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 forbidden to be sent to the army) from 1914 to 1917, thanks to her heroism, became famous person... M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a campaign trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, specially asked to meet with her and took her with him to Petrograd for agitation for a "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 her speech to the delegates of the congress, Bochkareva for the first time voiced her idea of creating shock female "death battalions". After that, 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 officers of the Women's Death Battalion, 1917.
Wikipedia
Women Volunteers of the First World War, 1916
PhotoDay
"I was told that my idea is excellent, but I need to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. I went with Rodzianka to Brusilov's Headquarters ... Brusilov told me in his office that you 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 sure of women, but if you give me full authority, then I can 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 the women's volunteer battalion. " - M. L. Bochkareva.
On June 21, 1917, a solemn ceremony of presenting a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva" took place on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral. The Military Council on June 29 approved the regulation "On the formation of military units from women volunteers."
"Kerensky listened with obvious impatience. It was obvious that he had already made a decision on this case. He doubted only one thing: whether I would be able to maintain high morale and morality in this battalion. Kerensky said that he would allow me to start forming immediately. When Kerensky accompanied me to the door, his gaze settled on General Polovtsev. He asked him to provide me with any necessary help. I almost choked with happiness. " - M. L. Bochkareva
Women's Death Battalion at the summer camp, 1917
Wikipedia
The ranks of the "shock women" consisted primarily of female military personnel from the front-line units (in the Russian Imperial Army there were a small number of female military personnel, each of whom was approved by the Highest permission in the army, among them there were even knights of St. George), but also women from civilian societies - noble women, student students, teachers, workers. There was a large proportion of soldiers and Cossacks. In the battalion of Bochkareva, both girls from the famous noble families of Russia, and ordinary peasant women and servants were represented. Maria Skrydlova, daughter of Admiral N.I. Skrydlov, served as Bochkareva's adjutant. The women volunteers were mostly Russian by nationality, but there were also other nationalities among them - Estonian, Latvian, Jewish, and English. The number of women's formations ranged from 250 to 1500 people.
The appearance of the Bochkareva detachment served as an impetus for the formation of female units 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 percussion parts were never completed.
Officially in October 1917 there were: 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion (infantry); Women's Marine 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 hostilities.
Attitude towards the women's movement
Petrograd units of the Women's Death Battalion in a military camp, 1917.
Wikipedia
As the Russian historian S. A. Solntseva wrote, the mass of soldiers and the Soviets took the "women's battalions of death" (as well as all other shock units) "with hostility." The front-line shockwomen did not call them anything other than "prostitutes". In early July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded to disband all "women's battalions" as "unsuitable for military service" - moreover, the formation of such battalions was regarded by the Petrograd Soviet as "a secret maneuver of the bourgeoisie, wishing to wage a war to a victorious end."
Participation in the battles of the First World War
On June 27, 1917, a 200-man "death battalion" arrived in the active army - in the rear units of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army of the Western Front in the Novospassky forest area, north of the town of Molodechno, near Smorgon.
On July 9, 1917, according to the plans of the Headquarters, the Western Front was to go on the offensive. On July 7, 1917, the 525th Kyuryuk-Dar'insky Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock women, received an order to take up positions at the front near the town of Krevo. The Death Battalion was on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, 1917, he first entered the battle, since the enemy, knowing about the plans of the Russian command, struck a preemptive strike and wedged into the location of the Russian troops. In three days, the regiment repelled 14 attacks German troops... Several times the battalion went up in counterattacks and knocked the Germans out of the Russian positions occupied the day before. Here is what Colonel V. I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in his report on the actions of the "death battalion":
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, all the time in the front line, serving on an equal basis with the soldiers. When the Germans attacked, on his own initiative, he rushed as one to counterattack; brought cartridges, went to secrets, and some to reconnaissance; With their work, the death squad set an example of courage, courage and calmness, lifted the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these women heroes deserves the title of a soldier of the Russian revolutionary army. According to Bochkareva herself, out of 170 people who participated in the hostilities, the battalion lost up to 30 people killed and up to 70 wounded. Maria Bochkareva, herself wounded in this battle for the fifth time, spent a month and a half in the hospital and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.
Such heavy losses among women volunteers had other consequences for the women's battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief, General L. G. Kornilov, by his order prohibited 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 them to be dismissed from the "parts of death."
Protection 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 Petrogradsky, under the command of the Life Guards Kexholm Regiment of Staff Captain A.V. Loskov in October 1917, together with the cadets and other units loyal to the oath, took part in the defense of the Winter Palace the Provisional Government was located.
On October 25 (November 7), a battalion stationed near the Levashovo station of the Finnish railway was to go to the Romanian front (according to the command's plans, each of the formed women's battalions was supposed to be sent to the front to raise the morale of male soldiers - one for each of the four fronts of the Eastern Front). But on October 24 (November 6), the battalion commander, Staff Captain Loskov, received an order to send the battalion to Petrograd "for a parade" (in fact, to guard the Provisional Government). Loskov, having learned about the real task and not wanting to involve subordinates in 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 workers and units of cadets, to ensure the layout of the Nikolaevsky, Palace and Liteiny bridges, but the Sovietized sailors thwarted this task.
The company took up defensive positions 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 Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier regiment, where some of the shock women were "treated badly" - as a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma established, three shock women were raped (although, perhaps, few dared to admit it), one committed suicide. On October 26 (November 8), the company was sent to the place of its former deployment 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 on October 25, 1917 unsuccessfully defended the Winter Palace.
Elimination of women's death battalions
After the October Revolution, the Soviet government, which embarked on a course of the earliest possible conclusion of peace, the withdrawal of Russia from the world war and the elimination 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 old War Ministry. At the same time, shortly before that, on November 19, an order was issued on the promotion of 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 struggle against Bolshevism in the ranks of the White movement. The last of the existing shock units was the 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion, stationed in Yekaterinodar - it was disbanded only on February 26, 1918 due to the refusal of the headquarters of the Caucasian Military District in its further supply.
