Maria Bochierev
Bochkareva Maria Leontievna (nee Frolkova, July 1889 - May 1920) - often considered first Russian woman officer (Produced during the 1917 revolution). Bochkarev created a female battalion in the history of the Russian army. Cavalier of St. George Cross.
In July 1889, the peasants of the village of Nikolskiy Kirillovsky County of Novgorod province Leonty Semenovich and Olga Elyazarovna Frolkov were born a third child - daughter Marusya. Soon the family, fleeing from poverty, moved to Siberia, where the government promised to the migrants large landlords and financial support. But, apparently, to get away from poverty and failed here. At a fifteenth age, Maria was married. In the book of the Resurrection Church, such a record was preserved from January 22, 1905: "The first marriage of Athanasius Sergeevich Bochkarev, 23 years old, the Orthodox religion, living in the Tomsk province, the Tomsk district of the village of Semiluksky Village Village Big Kuskovo in his wife Mary Maria Leontievna Frolkov, Orthodox religion ..." . They settled in Tomsk. A married life immediately immediately immediately, and Bochkarev without regret broke up with a drunk-husband. Mary left him to the butcher Yakov Buku. In May 1912, the beech was arrested on charges of robbery attacks and sent to serve his sentence to Yakutsk. Bochkarev was on foot followed him to Eastern Siberia, where they opened a meat shop to cover, although in fact the beech leaned in Honghuz's gang. Soon the police came out on the trail, and the beech was transferred to the settlement to the Taiga settlement of AMGA.
Although Bochkareva again followed his footsteps, her narrowed was drinking and began to engage in hand. At that time the first broke out world War. Bochkareva decided to join the ranks of the current army and, swaying with his yashka, arrived in Tomsk. Write a girl in the 24th reserve battalion Military refused and advised her to go to the front of the sister of mercy. Then Bochkareva sent a telegram to the king, which was unexpectedly followed by a positive answer. So she fell to the front.
At first, the woman in the pursuit caused ridicule and sticking colleagues, but her courage in battle brought her universal respect, the St. George Cross and three medals. In those years, the nickname "Yashka" was entrenched, in memory of her unlucky satellite of life. After two injuries and countless battles, Bochkarev was produced in the senior Unter-Officers.
In 1917, Kerensky appealed to Bochkurayova with a request to the organization of the "female battalion of death"; The participation in the patriotic project was attracted by his spouse and St. Petersburg institutes, a total of up to 2,000 people. In an unusual military unit, iron discipline reigned: the subordinates complained to the authorities that Bokchochuva "beats the muzzles like the RECAPER whamist of the old regime." Not many have sustained such a section: for short term The number of women volunteers decreased to three hundred. The rest stood out into a special female battalion, who defended the Winter Palace during the October coup.
In the summer of 1917, the squad of Bochkarev was distinguished in Smorgon; His resistance made an indelible impression on command (Anton Denikin). After the contusion received in that Battle, the Bochocharova's ensign was sent to the Petrogradsky hospital, and in the capital he received the title of a porquet, but soon after returning to the position she had to dissolve the battalion, due to the actual collapse of the front and the occasion of the October coup.
Winter was detained by the Bolsheviks on the way to Tomsk. After refusing to cooperate with the new authorities, she was accused of intercourse with General Kornilov, the case was almost reached the Tribunal. Thanks to the help of one of his former colleagues, Bochkarev broke out to freedom and, having a sister of mercy, drove the whole country to Vladivostok, from where he sailed to the campaign trip to the United States and Europe.
In April 1918, Bochkareva arrived in San Francisco. With the support of the influential and wealthy Florence, Harriman's daughter of the Russian peasant crossed the United States and was awarded on July 10, the audience of Woodrow Wilson's president in the White House. According to eyewitnesses, the story of Bochkarova about her dramatic fate and plenty of help against the Bolsheviks to the tears of the president. 
After visiting London, where she met with King Georg V and enlisted his financial support, Bochkareva in August 1918 arrived in Arkhangelsk. She expected to raise local women to fight the Bolsheviks, but the case went tight. General Marushevsky in the order of December 27, 1918 announced that the appeal of women on the unsuitable for them military service It will be a shame for the population of the Northern region, and forbade the Bochkolar to carry an officer-assigned officer's uniform.
Next year she was already in Tomsk under the banners of Admiral Kolchak, trying to put the nurse battalion. The flight of Kolchak from Omsk, she regarded as a betrayal, voluntarily appeared to local authorities who took a subscription of the unseason.
Siberian period (19th year, in Kolchakov fronts ...)
A few days later, during the church service, the 31-year-old Bochkarev was taken into custody. The obvious evidence of its treason or cooperation with white could not be found, and the proceedings were delayed for four months. According to the Soviet version, on May 16, 1920, she was shot in Krasnoyarsk on the basis of the resolution of the head of the special department of the 5th Army of Ivan Pavlounovsky and his deputy shimanovsky. But in the conclusion of the prosecutor's office of Russia on the rehabilitation of the Bochkareva 1992, it is said that evidence of its execution is not available.
M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April with a campaign trip to the Western Front, which served Bochkarev, specifically asked for a meeting with her and took her with himself to Petrograd for the agitation of the "War to winning" in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the Soldiers Congress Deputies of Petrosovet. In the speech, before the delegates of the Congress of the Bochkarev, first voiced its idea about creating percussion female "death battalions". After that, she was invited to a temporary government meeting to repeat his proposal.
"I was told that my idea is magnificent, but you need to report to the Supreme Commander Brusille and consult with him. I, together with Rodzhenka, went to Bruçilov's bet. Brusilov in the office I told me that you are hoping for women, and that the formation of a female battalion is the first In the world. Can women tele Russia? I brusilov said that I myself in women are not sure, but if you give me a full authority, then I will handle that my battalion is not a tendl of Russia. Brusilov told me that he believed me, And it will try to help in every possible way in the formation of a female volunteer battalion. "
Reverers of battalion
On June 21, 1917, a solemn ceremony of awarding the new military unit of the White Banner with the inscription "First Women's Military Team of the Death of Mary Bochkarevaya" took place at Square at St. Isaac's Cathedral. The Military Council on June 29 approved the provision "On the formation of military units from women volunteers."
"Kerensky listened with a clear impatience. It was obvious that he had already decided on this case. Doubted only one thing: Will I be able to keep the high moral spirit in this battalion and morality. Kerensky said that he would allow me to start forming immediately<…> When Kerensky accompanied me to the door, his eyes stopped on General Polovtsev. He asked him to provide me with any needed help. I almost suffocated from happiness. "
The appearance of a packed squad served as an impulse to the formation of female detachments in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but by virtue of the increased processes of destruction of the whole state, the creation of these female shock Parts never have been completed.
Education recruits
Officially, in October 1917, it was listed: the 1st Petrograd female death battalion, the 2nd Moscow female death battalion, the 3rd Kuban female shock battalion (infantry); Sea Women's Team (Oranienbaum); Cavalry 1st Petrograd battalion of the female military union; Minsk separate guard squad from women volunteers. The first three battalions visited the front, there was only the 1st battalion of Bochkuravoy in the battles.
The soldiers' mass and advice perceived the "female battalions of death" (however, as all other "shock parts") "in the bayonies". The front-line shocks are different as prostitutes were not called. Petrogradsky Council at the beginning of July made a demand to disband all the "female battalions", both due to "unsuitable for the carrying of the army service" and due to the fact that the formation of such battalions "is a secretive manneur of the bourgeoisie wishing to lead war to the victorious end" 
Solemn faults to the front of the first female battalion. Photo. Moscow Red Square. Summer 1917.
On June 27, the "death battalion" in the composition of two hundred volunteers arrived in the operating army - into the rear parts of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army of the Western Front to the Molodechno district. On July 7, the 525th Cüruck-Daryin infantry regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shocks, entered the order to take positions at the front at the town of Krevo. The "death battalion" ranked positions on the right flank regiment. On July 8, the first battalion battalion was happening. 170 women participated in the bloody battles that were launched before July 10. The regiment reflected 14 Ataks of Germanians. Dobrovolitsa passed several times in counterattacks. Colonel V. I. Prolchzhevsky wrote in the report on the action of the "death battalion":
The squad of Bochkarevoy was in battle heroic, all the time in an advanced line, carrying a service on a par with soldiers. At the attack of the Germans, it rushed as one in the counterattack; brought cartridges, went to secrets, and some in intelligence; The team of death filed an example of courage, courage and tranquility, raised the spirit of soldiers and proved that each of these women heroes worthy of the title of warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.
Private Female Battalion Pelageya Saigina
The battalion lost 30 people killed and 70 wounded. Maria Bochkareva, herself wounded in this battle for the fifth time, held 1½ months in the hospital and was produced in the rank of a jig.
Such heavy losses of volunteers have also had other consequences for women's battalions - August 14, the new masterkroker L. G. Kornilov forbade his order to the creation of new women's "death battalions" for combat applicationAnd already created parts were prescribed to use only at auxiliary sites (security functions, communication, sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with arms in their hands wrote applications with a request to dismiss them from "parties of death"
One of the female death battalions (1st Petrogradsky, under the command of the Life Guard of the Kexgolm Regiment: 39 Staff-captain A. V. Loschova) Together with Junkers and other parts, faithful, participated in the protection of the Winter Palace in October 1917 in which there was a temporary government.
November 7 Battalion, housed not far from Levashovo Station Finland railway, I had to go to the Romanian Front (according to the commands of the command, each of the formed women's battalions were assumed to send to the front to raise the moral spirit of Male warriors - one for each of the four fronts of the Eastern Front). 
1st Petrograd female battalion
big size
But on November 6, the commander of the Loskov battalion received the order to send a battalion to Petrograd "to the parade" (in fact, for the protection of the temporary government). Loskov, having learned about the real task, not wanting to pull volunteers into a political confrontation, brought the entire battalion from Petrograd back to Levashovo, with the exception of the 2nd company (137 people). 
2 companies of the 1st Petrograd female battalion
The headquarters of the Petrograd Military District tried with the help of two platforms of volunteers and units of junkers to provide the wiring of the Nikolaev, palace and foundry bridges, but the sentented sailors threw this task. 
Volunteers on the square in front of the Winter Palace. November 7, 1917.
Rota ranked Defense on the first floor of the Winter Palace on the site to the right of the main gate to the Million Street. At night, in the process of assaulting the Palace revolutionaries, the company surrendered, was disarmed and enclosed in Pavlovsky's barracks, then the Grenaderian regiment, where he treated badly "- as a specially created commission of the Petrograd city Duma, three shocks were raped (although, perhaps, few They dare to admit this), one committed suicide. On November 8, the company was sent to the place of the former deployment in Levashovo.
After the October coup, the Bolshevik government, which took the course for a complete collapse of the army, for an immediate defeat in the war and to conclude the separate world with Germany, was not interested in the preservation of "shock parts". On November 30, 1917, the Military Council of another old military ministry was issued an order for the dissolution of "female death battalions". Shortly before that, on November 19, the order for the military ministry, all women servicemen were produced in officers, "for military merit". Nevertheless, many volunteers remained in their parts until January 1918 and further. Some of them moved to the Don and took part in the fight against Bolshevism in the ranks of the White Movement.
The future heroine of the Russian-American blockbuster "Battalion", who, with a breath, look at our modern "patriots", Maria Bochkareva was born in 1889 in the family of the peasants of the village of Nikolskoy Novgorod province Leonty and Olga Frolkov. The family, fleeing from poverty and hunger, moved to Siberia, where the fifteen-year-old Maria was married to the local drunkard. Bochkarev after some time left her husband to the butcher Yakov Buku, who led the local gang of robbers. In May 1912, the beech was arrested and sent to serve his sentence to Yakutsk. Bochkareva on foot followed Yasha to Eastern Siberia, where they opened the meat shop again to divert eyes, although in fact the beech with the participation of his mistress organized a gang of Honghuz and produced the usual disclaimer on a big road. Soon the barbell came out to the trail, Buka and Bochkarev were arrested and transferred to the settlement to the deaf Taiga village of AMGA, where it was no longer robbery.
The narrowed by Bochkoeva from such grief and the impossibility of doing a favorite thing, namely, robbed, as usual in Russia, washed and began to train in the Morderus of the mistress. At that time, the First World War broke out, and Bochkareva decided to finish her tajore-robbery stage of life and go to the front, especially since the Yashka became more and more bridle from longing. Only the record of the volunteer in the army allowed Mary to leave the place of settlement defined by the police. Write a girl in the 24th reserve battalion The Martial Magazine Poet was abandoned and advised her to go to the front of the sister of mercy. Bochkareva, not wanting to carry the wounded and wash bandages, I sent a telegram to the king with a request to give her the opportunity to shoot Germans. The telegram reached the addressee, and the positive response was unexpectedly followed from the king. So the lover of the Siberian Robber fell to the front.
At first, the woman in the pursuit caused ridicule and sticking colleagues, but her courage in battle brought her universal respect, the St. George Cross and three medals. In those years, the nickname "Yashka" was entrenched, in memory of her unlucky satellite of life. After two injuries and countless battles, Bochkarev was produced in the senior Unter-Officers.
M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April with a campaign trip to the West Front, which served Bochkarev, took her with him to Petrograd for the agitation of the "War to the winning end" in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates to the Congress of the Soldier deputies of Petroset.
After a number of speeches by Bochkarevoy Kerensky, in the attack of the next propaganda adventurism, he turned to her with a proposal to organize a "female death battalion". The wife of Kerensky, and St. Petersburg institutes, a total of up to 2,000 girls were brought to participate in this pseudo-patriotic project. In an unusual military unit, the arbitrariness reigned to which Bochkareva got used to the current army: the subordinates complained to the bosses that Bokhocharova "beats the muzzles as the Barching Wachmaster of the old regime." Not many have sustained such a section: in a short time the number of women volunteers decreased to 300.
But nevertheless, on June 21, 1917, a solemn ceremony of presenting a new military unit of the White Banner with the inscription "First Women's Military Team of the Death of Mary Bochkurasova" took place on the square at St. Isaac's Cathedral of Petrograd. The Military Council on June 29 approved the provision "On the formation of military units from women volunteers." The appearance of a packed squad served as an impulse to the formation of female detachments in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to historical development Events, the creation of these female shock parts has not been completed.
In female battalions, a tough discipline was installed: a rise in five in the morning, classes up to ten in the evening and a simple soldier's food. Women strigley naked. Black straps with a red stripe and emblem in the form of a skull and two crossed bones symbolized "unwillingness to live if Russia perished."
M. Bochkareva banned any party propaganda and organization of any tips and committees in his battalion. Because of the harsh discipline, a split occurred in the still formed battalion. Part of the women attempted to form the Soldier Committee and made a sharp criticism of the brocharoy's brief management methods. In the battalion there was a split. M. Bochkarev was called alternately to the Commander District General Polovtsev and Kerensky. Both conversations took place violently, but Bochkareva stood on her: she will not be any committees!
She refined his battalion. It remains about 300 women, and he became the 1st Petrograd shock battalion. And from the other women who disagree with the methods of command of the Bochkuravoya, the 2nd Moscow strike battalion was formed.
Martial baptism 1st battalion accepted on July 9, 1917. Women fell under strong artillery and machine gun shelling. Although in the reports it was said that "the squad of the Bochkarova behaved in the battle of heroic," it became clear that the effective combat force of women's military units could not become. After the fight, 200 women soldiers remained in the ranks. Losses were 30 people killed and 70 wounded. M. Bochkarev was produced in the rank of a porquet, and subsequently - in the lieutenants. Such heavy losses of volunteers also had other consequences for women's battalions - August 14, the new masterkroker L. G. Kornilov forbade his order to the creation of new female "death battalions" for combat use, and already created parts were prescribed only to use only at auxiliary sites (security functions, communication , sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with arms in their hands wrote statements with a request to quit them from the "parties of death".
The Second Moscow Battalion, who left from under the command of Bochkolarova, fell out lots to be among the last defenders of the temporary government in the days of the October coup. Only this only military part of Kerensky managed to inspect the day before the coup. As a result, only the second company was selected for the protection of the Winter Palace, but not the entire battalion. The protection of the winter palace, as we know, ended in deplorable. Immediately after the capture of the Winter Palace, the most sensational stories about the terrible fate of the female battalion defended the palace spread in the Anti-Bolshevik press. It was said that some women soldiers were thrown into the bridge from the windows, almost everyone else was raped, and many were committed to themselves, without being able to survive all these horrors.
City Duma appointed a special commission to investigate the case. 16 (3) November This commission returned from Levashov, where the female battalion was quartered. The deputy of Tyrkova said: "All these 140 girls are not only alive, not only not wounded, but also were not exposed to those horrible insults that we heard and read." After taking the winter woman, they were first sent to Pavlovsk barracks, where soldiers were really treated with some of them, but now most of them are in Levashov, and the rest are scattered on private homes in Petrograd. Another member of the Commission testified that no woman was thrown out of the windows of the Winter Palace, which were raped three, but already in Pavlovsky barracks, and that one volunteer was committed suicide from the window, and she left a note in which he wrote that " disappointed in his ideals. "
The slanderers were exposed to the volunteers themselves. "In view of the fact that in a number of places in malicious persons, false not substantiated rumors are applied that allegedly, with the disarmament of the female battalion, violence and greasy, we are the following, - said in a letter of the soldier of the former female battalion, - We consider our civilian debt to declare that there was nothing like that that it was all a lie and slander "(November 4, 1917)
In January 1918, women's battalions were formally dissolved, but many of their participants continued to serve in parts of the White Guard armies.
Maria Bochkarev herself took an active part in white movement. On the instructions of General Kornilov went to visit the best "friends" of Russia - to Americans - to ask for help to fight the Bolsheviks. Approximately the same thing we are seeing today when various lumps and semenchenki go to the same America to ask for money for the war with Donbass and Russia. Then, in 1919, the help of Bochkolar, as today's emissary of the Kiev junta, was the American senators promised. Upon returning to Russia on November 10, 1919, Bochkareva met with Admiral Kolchak. According to his instruction, a female sanitary squad in 200 people formed. But in the same November 1919, after the capture of Omsk, the Red Army was arrested and shot.
So ended the "glorious" path of the new idol of our patriotically tuned public.
From the family of illiterate peasants, Maria Bochkareva was clearly an extraordinary person. Her name thundered throughout Russian Empire. It would be more: a female officer, Georgievsky Cavalier, organizer and commander of the first female "battalion of death." She met with Kerensky and Brusille, Lenin and Trotsky, Cornilov and Kolchak, Winston Churchill, english king Georg V and US President Woodrow Wilson. They all celebrated the extraordinary strength of the spirit of this woman.
Grave share of Russian women
Maria Bochkarev (Frolkov) was from the Novgorod peasants. In the hope of the best proportion, the Frolkov family moved to Siberia, where the peasants distributed the land for free. But the ferlkov could not raise the virgin, downtown in Tomsk province, lived in extreme poverty. At 15 years, Marusu was married, and she became Bochkurava. Together with her husband, she unloaded barges, worked in a team on laying asphalt. Here, for the first time, the extraordinary organizational abilities of the Bochkareva, very soon she became an assistant to the foreman, 25 people worked under her beginning. And the husband remained black-worker. He drank and beat his wife with mortal battle. Maria fled from him to Irkutsk, where she agreed with Yakov Book. The new civil husband of Mary was a player, besides, with criminal inclinations. As part of the gang of Honghuz Jacob participated in robbery attacks. In the end, he was arrested and exiled to the Yakut province. Maria went after his beloved in distant AMGU. Yakov did not appreciate the feat of the self-sacrifice of a loving woman and soon began to drink and beat Maria. It seemed there was no exit from this closed circle. But the first world war was killed.
Private Bochkarev
Walking through Taiga Maria went to Tomsk, where he appeared on a draft point and asked to write it with an ordinary fighter. The officer wisely suggested her sister of mercy in a red cross or some support service. But Maria wanted to be at the front. Having finished 8 rubles, she sent a telegram to the highest name: Why did she refuse to fight and die for their homeland? The answer came surprisingly quickly, and, by the highest permission, an exception was made for Mary. So in the lists of the battalion appeared "Private Bochkarev". She was blinded under the machine and gave out a rifle, two peasons, gymnasters, pants, chinel, dad and everything else that was put on a soldier.
On the first night there were those who wish to check "to the touch", and is it really this unworn soldier - Baba? Mary turned out to be not only a hard character, but also a heavy hand: not looking, she, with a swing of the brave, all that came under his arm - boots, a cauldron, a sacheth. Yes, and the cam in the former asphalt paver turned out to be at all the ladies. In the morning, Maria did not mention the night of the night, and in class was among the first. Soon the whole company was proud of his unusual soldier (where else is this?) And was ready to kill anyone who would eat on the honor of their "Yashka" (such a nickname was received by Maria from union-cap). In February 1915, the 24th reserve battalion was sent to the front. Mary abandoned the proposal of officers to go to the pile wagon under Molodechno arrived together with everyone in the hemp.
Front
On the third day, after arriving at the front of the company, in which Bochkarev served, went to the attack. Of 250 people up to the line of wire barriers reached 70. I have not been able to overcome the barriers, the soldiers turned back. Until his trenches reached less than 50. As soon as hemethed, Maria crawled onto a neutral strip and dragged all night wounded into the trench. Almost 50 people saved that night, for which it was presented to the award and received the St. George Cross of the 4th degree. Bochkareva went to attacks, nightly tags, captured prisoners, not one German "took on the bayonet." Legends walked about her fearlessness. By February 1917 she has 4 injured and 4 George awards (2 cross and 2 medals), on the shoulders of the epaulets of the senior Unter-Officer.
Year 1917
In the army at this time - full chaos: ordinary equalized rights with officers, orders are not fulfilled, desertion reached invisible scale, decisions on the occurrence are not taken in the headquarters, but on rallies. The soldiers are tired and do not want to fight more. Bochkarev all this does not accept this: how so, 3 years of war, so many victims, and all the gap?! But agitating on the soldiers' rallies for "war to the victorious end" just beat. In May 1917, the chairman of the Temporary Committee of the State Duma M. Rodzianko arrived at the front. He met with Bochkareva and immediately invited her to Petrograd. According to him, Maria should become a participant in a series of propaganda shares for the continuation of the war. But the Bochkarev went on his ideas: on May 21, at one of the rallies, she put forward the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a "shock female battalion of death".
"Death Battalion" Maria Bochkareva
The idea was approved and supported the Commander-in-Chief of Brusilles and Kerensky, who then occupied the post of military and maritime minister. For several days to call Mary to women in Russia, more than 2,000 volunteers were recorded to the battalion as an example of Men. Among them were meshmen and peasantry, domestic servants and graduates of universities. There were also representatives of noble surnames of Russia. Bochkareva set a rigid discipline in the battalion and supported it with its iron (in the full sense of the word - beat the muzzles as a charted elder wax driver). A number of women who did not accept the Bochkarevian battalion control measures, will fall over and organized their impact battalion (it was he, not "Bochkarevsky," defended the Winter Palace in October 1917). Pochkin Bocharoye was picked up throughout Russia: in Moscow, Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Simbirsk, Kharkov, Smolensk, Vyatka, Baku, Irkutsk, Mariupol, Odessa began to create infantry and cavalry women's parts and even women's sea teams (Oranienbaum). (True, the formation of many has not been completed)
On June 21, 1917, Petrograd accompanied shocks to the front. With a huge crossing of the people, the battalion was awarded the banner, Kornilov handed the Bochkarevaya nominal, and Kerensky - epaulets of the ensign. On June 27, the battalion arrived at the front, and on July 8 entered into battle.
Vain victims of the female battalion
The fate of the battalion can be called tragic. The women rising in the attack really fascinated by neighboring companies. The first defense line was taken, then the second, third ... - and that's it. Other parts did not rose. Reinforcement did not come up. The shocks reflected several German counterattacks. There was a threat to the environment. Bochkareva ordered to retreat. Positions taken with the battle had to leave. The victims of the battalion (30 killed and 70 wounded) were in vain. Bochkarev herself in that battle was hardly controversial and sent to the hospital. After 1.5 months, she (already in the rank of a podoror) returned to the front and found the situation even more worsened. The shocks carried the service on a par with men, were caused to intelligence, rushed into counterattacks, but the example of women did not inspire anyone. The 200 surviving shocks could not save the army from decomposition. The collisions between them and soldiers, as soon as possible, "the bayonet to the ground - and home" were threatened to grow into a civil war in a separate shelf. To find the situation of hopeless, Bochkareva dissolved the battalion, and he left Petrograd herself.
In the rows of white movement
She was too noticeable figure to imperceptibly dissolve in Petrograd. She was arrested and brought to Smolny. Lenin and Trotsky appeared with the famous Maria Bochkareva. The leaders of the revolution tried to attract such a bright person to cooperate, but Maria, refused to refuse. Meetings with her were looking for members of the White Movement. She also stated to the representative of the underground officer organization General Anosov that it would not fight against their people, but to go to Don to General Kornilov as a coherent organization agreed. So Bochkarev became a participant in the civil war. Changed by the sister of mercy, Maria went south. In Novocherkassk, she handed the Cornilov letters and documents and went, already as a personal representative of General Kornilov, asking for help from the Western powers.
Mary Bochkareva diplomatic mission
Procedured through the whole of Russia, she got to Vladivostok, where he sat on the American vessel. On April 3, 1918, Maria Bochkarev went ashore to the port of San Francisco. Newspapers wrote about her, she performed at meetings, met with prominent public and politicians. The Messenger of the White Traffic was adopted by the US Defense Minister, Secretary of State Lansing and US President Woodrow Wilson. Further, Maria went to England, where he met with the Military Minister Winston Churchill and King Georg V. All their Maria walked, persuaded, convinced to assist the White Army, money, weapons, food, and all her promised this help. Occashed, Maria goes back to Russia.
In the crowd of the fronts of the civil war
In August 1918, Bochkarev arrived in Arkhangelsk, where he again made the initiative of the organization of the female battalion. The Government of the Northern Oblast to this initiative was treated cool. General Morushevsky frankly stated that the involvement of women in military service considers shame. In June 1919, a caravan of ships came from Arkhangelsk to the east. In the trums of ships - weapons, ammunition and ammunition for the troops of the Eastern Front. On one of the ships - Maria Bochkareva. Her goal is Omsk, her last hope - Admiral Kolchak.
She got to Omsk and met with Kolchak. Admiral made a strong impression on her and instructed the organization of a sanitary squad. For 2 days, Maria has formed a group of 200 people, but the front has already cracked and rolled to the east. It will not pass through the month as the "third capital" will be left, the slicer itself remains less than six months.
Arrest - sentence - death
In the tenths of November, Kolchak left Omsk. Maria did not leave with retreating troops. Charter fight, she decided to reconcile with the Bolsheviks, returned to Tomsk. But too, her glory was too bad, too heavy there was a load of sins of the Bochkarieva in front of the Soviet government. People who took a much less active participation in white movement were paid for this by their lives. What to say about the Bochkarova whose name has repeatedly flashed on the pages of the white newspapers. On January 7, 1920, Maria Bochkarev was arrested, and on May 16, he was shot as "an irreconcilable and worst enemy of the Workers' and Peasant Republic." Rehabilitated in 1992.
The name will return
Maria Bochkarev was not the only woman who fought in the First World War. Thousands of women went to the front as sisters of mercy, many made their way to the front, giving themselves for men. Unlike them, Maria did not hide his belonging to the female sex, which, however, does not at least detract from the feat of the other "Russian Amazons". Maria Bochkarev would have to take a worthy place on the pages of the Russian textbook. But, for known reasons, in soviet time The slightest mention of it diligently dilated. There were only a few contemptuous lines of Mayakovsky in his poem "Good!".
Currently, a film about the Bochkareva and Her Shocking "Battalion of Death" is filmed in St. Petersburg, the exit is planned for August 2014. We hope that this tape will return the name of Mary by Bochkuravian citizens of Russia, and its extinguished the star broke out again.
Female battalions - Military formations, consisting exclusively of women created by the temporary government, mainly with a propaganda goal - to raise the patriotic attitudes in the army and ashamed by their own example of male soldiers refusing to fight. Despite this, they restably participated in the fighting of the First World War. One of the initiators of their creation was Maria Bochkarev.
History of origin
Senior Unter-Officer M. L. Bochkarev, who was at the front with the highest permission (as women were forbidden to direct in the existing army) from 1914 by 1917, thanks to the manifestized heroism, became famous person. M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April with a campaign trip to the West Front, which served Bochkarev, specifically asked for a meeting with her and took her with himself to Petrograd for campaigning for the "war to the victorious end" in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the Congress Soldier deputies Petrosovet. In the speech before the delegates of the Congress of the Bochkarev, first spoke on the creation of impact female "death battalions". After that, she was invited to submit their offer at a meeting of the Provisional Government.
I was told that my idea is great, but you need to report to the Supreme Commander Brusille and consult with him. I, together with Rodzyanka, went to Brousilov's bet ... Brusilov in the office I told me that you are hoping for women and that the formation of a female battalion is the first in the world. Can women telest Russia? I said Brusille that I myself was not sure about women, but if you give me a full authority, then I handle that my battalion is not a tendl of Russia ... Brusilov told me that he believed me and would try to help me in every way in the formation of a female volunteer battalion .
M. L. Bochkarev
The appearance of a squad of Bochkarova served as a pulse to the formation of female detachments in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to the increased processes of the destruction of the Russian state, creating these female shock Parts never have been completed.
Officially, in October 1917, it was listed: the 1st Petrograd female death battalion, the 2nd Moscow female death battalion, the 3rd Kuban female shock battalion (infantry); Sea Women's Team (Oranienbaum); Cavalry 1st Petrograd battalion of the female military union; Minsk separate guard squirrel from women volunteers. The first three battalions were visited on the front, only the 1st Bacchošoy Bocharoy battalion participated in the fighting.
Attitude to female battalions
As the Russian historian S. A. Solntva wrote, the soldiers' mass and advice took the "female death battalions" (however, like all other shock parts) "in the bayonets". Frontoviki shocks otherwise as "prostitutes" was not called. Petrogradsky Council at the beginning of July made a demand to disband all the "female battalions" as "unsuitable for the carrying of the army service" - besides, the formation of such battalions was regarded by Petrosovet as "a hidden maneuver of the bourgeoisie, who wants to lead the war to a victorious end."
We will pay tribute to the brave. But ... It is not a place to a woman in the fields of death, where the horror reigns, where the blood, dirt and deprivation, where the hearts are harder and grieved the morals. There are many ways of public and state ministry, much more relevant to the vocation of a woman.
Participation in the fights of the First World War
On June 27, 1917, the "battalion of death" as part of two hundred people arrived in the current army - into the rear parts of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army of the Western Front to the area of \u200b\u200bthe Novospassky Forest, the north of the city of Molodechno, which under Smargon.
July 9, 1917 according to the plans of the Rate, the West Front should have proceeded to the offensive. On July 7, 1917, the 525th Cusünk-Daryin infantry regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shocks, received an order to take positions at the front at the town of Krevo. The "death battalion" was on the right flank regiment. On July 8, 1917, he first entered into battle, since the enemy, knowing about the plans of the Russian command, an emerging strike and wedged into the location of the Russian troops. For three days, the regiment reflected 14 attacks german troops. Several times the battalion climbed the counterattack and knocked her Germans from the Russian positions occupied on the eve. This is what Colonel V. I. Prolchzhevsky wrote in his report on the actions of the "battalion of death":
The squad of Bochkarevoy was in battle heroic, all the time in an advanced line, carrying a service on a par with soldiers. At the attack of the Germans, it rushed as one in the counterattack; brought cartridges, went to secrets, and some in intelligence; The team of death filed an example of courage, courage and tranquility, raised the spirit of soldiers and proved that each of these women heroes worthy of the title of warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.
According to the testimony of the Bochkolarova itself, out of 170 people who participated in 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, held a month and a half in the hospital and was produced in the rank of a jig.
Such heavy losses among women volunteers had any other consequences for women's battalions - August 14, the new Glavkovoker General L. G. Kornilov forbade his order to the creation of new female "death battalions" for combat use, and already created parts were prescribed only on auxiliary sites ( Security functions, communication, sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many women volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with arms in their hands wrote statements with a request to dismiss them from the "parties of death".
Protection of temporary government
One of the female death battalions (1st Petrogradsky, under the command of the Life Guard of the Kexgolm Regiment: 39 Staff-captain A. V. Loscova) In October, together with the Junkers and other parts, the faithful oath of February, took part in the protection of the Winter Palace in which there was a temporary government.
October 25 (November 7) A battalion, quartered in the area of \u200b\u200bLevashovo Station of the Finnish Railway, was supposed to go to the Romanian Front (according to the commands of the command, each of the formed women's battalions were supposed to send to the front to raise the moral spirit of Male warriors - one for each of the four fronts of the Eastern Front). But on October 24 (November 6), the commander of the battalion headquarters-captain Loskov received the order to send a battalion to Petrograd "to the parade" (in fact, to protect the temporary government). Loskov, having learned about the real task and not wanting to pull the subordinate to the political confrontation, brought the entire battalion from Petrograd back to Levashov, with the exception of the 2nd company (137 people).
Rota ranked Defense on the first floor of the Winter Palace on the site to the right of the main gate to the Million Street. At night, during the storming of the palace, the company surrendered, was disarmed and enclosed in Pavlovsky barracks, then a Grenadier regiment, where with some shocks "They were treated" "As a specially created commission of the Petrograd city Duma installed, three shocks were raped (although, perhaps, few dare to admit this), one committed suicide. October 26 (November 8) the company was sent to the place of the previous deployment in Levashovo.
Liquidation of female death battalions
Form and appearance
The soldiers of the female battalion Bochkoyevoy wore a symbol of "Adam's Head" on Chevron. Women passed a medical examination and having worked almost naked.
Songs
March forward, forward to fight,
Women soldiers!
Sound dashing calls you into battle
Sugostaty shuddered
From the song of the I-th Petrograd women's battalion
In culture
Writer Boris Akunin wrote a detective "Battalion Angels", whose action takes place in 1917 in the female battalion of death. Of real prototypes The book shows the daughter of Admiral Zhidlob (under the name of Alexander Shatskaya) and Maria Bochkarev.
In February 2015, the Russian feature film was published in film distribution "
There is so many legends about this amazing woman that it is difficult to assert with complete confidence that the truth is, and that fiction. But it is reliably known that a simple peasant, only at the end of the life of a learning diploma, the king of England Georg V during a personal audience called the "Russian Joan d'Ark", and V. Wilson with honorable took in the White House. Her name is Bochkareva Maria Leontievna. Fate prepared her honor to become the first woman-officer of the Russian army.
Childhood, youth and only love
The future heroine of the female battalion was born in a simple peasant family in the village of Nikolskaya Novgorod province. She was the third child of the parents. They lived the injignment and, in order to somehow improve their plight, moved to Siberia, where the government has deployed a program of assistance to migrants in those years. But the hopes were not justified, and to sell from the hands of an extra consumer, Maria early was married to the unloved man, and also a drunkard. From him she got a surname - Bochkarev.
Very soon, a young woman will forever break up with his spouse to her and begins free life. Then she meets her first and last in life love. Unfortunately, with men Mary Fatally, it was not lucky: if the first was drunkard, then the second turned out to be the most real bandit that took part in the robbery together with the Honghuz gang - immigrants from China and Manchuria. But, as they say, the love of evil ... the name was his Yankel (Yakov) beech. When he, finally, was arrested and for the court was transmitted to Yakutsk, Maria Bochkareva went after him, like the heels of the Decembrists.
But the desperate Yankel was irreparable and even in the settlement, it was trampled by the buying stolen, and later with robbery. In order to protect the beloved from the inevitable cortic, Maria was forced to give up the harassment of the local governor, but herself could not survive this forced treason - tried to poison. The story of her love was over: the beech, having learned about what happened, in the heat of jealousy, he caught the governor. He was tried and sent down the stage in a deaf distant place. More Maria did not see him.
To the front with the personal permission of the emperor
News about the beginning of the First World War caused russian society An unprecedented patriotic rise. Thousands of volunteers went to the front. Maria Bochkareva followed their example. The history of her enrollment in the army is very unusual. After contacting the reserve battalion in November 1914, which was in Tomsk, she received a refusal to the Ironic Council to ask for permission personally at the sovereign of the emperor. Contrary to the expectation of the battalion commander, she really wrote a petition for the highest name. What was the general amazement, when after a while she came to a positive answer for his personal signature of Nicholas II.
After a brief course of study, in February 1915, Maria Bochkareva turns out to be at the front as a civilian soldier - in those years there was such a status of military personnel. Holding for this is a nejoral business, it fearfully went to the bayonet attacks in a par with men, pulled out of the wounded fire and showed genuine heroism. Here, the nickname of the Yashka, which she herself chose himself in memory of his beloved - Yakov Beech. There was two men in her life - her husband and lover. From the first she was last named, from the second - nickname.
When a regular commander was killed in March 1916, Maria, standing in his place, raised fighters in the offensive, which became disastrous for the enemy. For the manifestation of the couch, Bochkarev was awarded the St. George Cross and three medals, and soon it was produced in the younger nonsense officers. Being on the front line, she was repeatedly wounded, but remained in the ranks, and only a heavy wound in the thigh led Mary to the hospital, where she was laying four months.
Creating the first in the history of the female battalion
Returning to the position, Maria Bochkareva - Georgievsky Cavalier and a recognized fighter - found his regiment in a state of complete decomposition. During its absence, the February revolution occurred, and among the soldiers there were endless rallies, alternating with britches with the "Germans". Deep outraged by this, Maria was looking for the opportunity to influence what is happening. Soon this case was introduced.
For campaigning to the front, the Chairman of the Interim Committee of the State Duma M. Rodzianko arrived. With his support, Bochocharova, in early March, was in Petrograd, where he began to realize his long-standing dreams - the creation of military units from patriotic volunteer women, ready to play on the defense of the Motherland. In this undertak, she met the support of the Military Minister of the Provisional Government of A. Kerensky and the Supreme Commander of General A. Brousilov.
In response to the appeal of Marya Bochkarev, more than two thousand Russians expressed a desire with a weapon in their hands in the ranks of the part being created. Destinations are the fact that the educated women were among them a significant part - students and graduates of Bestuzhevsky courses, and a third of them had a secondary education. Such indicators could not boast any male unit. Among the "shock" - this name was entrenched behind them - there were representatives of all the societies of society - from the peasants to the aristocrats who bear the loudest and famous names in Russia.
The commander of the female battalion Maria Bochkareva installed among the subordinate iron discipline and strictest subordination. The rise was at five in the morning, and all day until ten o'clock in the evening was filled with endless occupations, interrupted only with a short rest. Many women, mostly from their secured families, are difficult to get used to the simple soldier's food and a rigid routine. But it was not the greatest difficulty for them.
It is known that soon in the name they began to receive complaints of rudeness and self-government on the side of the Bochkuravoy. Even the facts of manual design were indicated. In addition, Maria Strozheshi banned to appear in the location of its battalion to political agitators, representatives of various party organizations, and this was a direct violation of the orders established by the February Revolution. As a result of the mass disconnect of two hundred and fifty "shocks", they left the Bochkolar and joined another formation.
Sending to Front
And now the long-awaited day came, when on June 21, 1917 on the square in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral during a crossing of a new public received a new martial banner. It was written on it: "The first women's team of death of Maria Bochkuravoy". Do I need to say how many excitements did the hostess of the celebration, standing on the right flank in the new uniform? On the eve, the rank of ensign, and Maria - the first female officer in the Russian army was rightfully the heroines of the day.
But this is the feature of all holidays - they are replaced by everyday life. So the celebrations of St. Isaac's Cathedral came to the celebrations and not a romantic tanning life. Young defenders of the Fatherland collided with reality, which had not previously had ideas. They were among the degraded and morally decomposed soldiers' mass. Bochkarev herself in his memories call the soldier "dismissed Chantrap." In order to protect women from possible violence, I had to even exhibit clock barracks.
However, after the first combat operation in which Mary Bochkareva battalion participated, "Shock", showing courage, worthy of real fighters, forced to treat themselves with respect. This happened in the first days of July 1917 under Smorgan. After such a heroic began, even such an opponent of the participation of female units in hostilities, as General A. I. Kornilov, was forced to change his mind.
Hospital in Petrograd and inspection of new divisions
The female battalion participated in battles on a par with all other units and, just like them, a loss. Having received in one of the battles that occurred on July 9, heavy contusion, Maria Bochkareva was sent to treat Petrograd. During her stay at the front in the capital, a widespread development launched by the female patriotic movement. New battalions were formed, equipped from the voluntary defenders of the Fatherland.
When Bochkareva was discharged from the hospital, by order of the newly appointed Supreme Commander of L. Kornilov, she was charged with the inspection of these units. The results of the inspection turned out to be very disappointing. None of the battalions were quite an efficient unit. However, the situation of the revolutionary turmoil who reigned in the capital, hardly allowed to achieve a positive result in a short time, and it had to put up with it.
Soon Maria Bochkareva returns to his part. But from that time, its organizational dust has somewhat cooled. She repeatedly declared that it was disappointed in women and henceforth does not consider it appropriate to take them to the front - "Sleeps and Plaks". It is likely that its claims for subordinates were extremely overestimated, and what was able to her - combat officerIt went beyond the possibilities of ordinary women. Kavaler of St. George Cross, Maria Bochkareva was by that time produced in the rank of lieutenant.
Features of the "female battalion of death"
Since the chronology, the events described are approaching the famous episode of the defense of the last residence of the Provisional Government (Winter Palace), it is necessary to dwell on the fact that he was at that time military unitwho created Maria Bochkarev. "The female battalion of death" - so accepted him to call him - in accordance with the law, was considered an independent military unit and equated in his status to the regiment.
The total number of women soldiers was a thousand people. The officer composition was fully completed from men, and they were all experienced commanders who passed the fronts of the First World War. The battalion was deployed at Levashovo station, where the conditions necessary for classes were created. In the location of the part, any agitation and party work was categorically prohibited.
The battalion should not have any political coloring. His appointment was to protect the fatherland from external enemies, and not to participate in internal political conflicts. The battalion commander was, as mentioned above, Maria Bochkareva. The biography is inseparable from this combat formation. In the fall, everyone was expected to be afraid to be sent to the front, but it happened otherwise.
Defense of the Winter Palace
Suddenly, an orders arrived at one of the battalion divisions to arrive on October 24 to Petrograd to participate in the parade. In fact, it was only an excuse for attracting "shocks" to the protection of the Winter Palace from the Armed Speech by Bolsheviks. In that period, the palace garrison consisted of disparate divisions of Cossacks and junkers of various military schools and did not constitute any serious military force.
Women who arrived and located in the empty premises of the former royal residence, instructed the defense of the southeast wing of the building from the Palace Square. On the first day they managed to push the detachment of the Red Guards and take control of the Nikolaev bridge. However, the next day, on October 25, the building of the palace was completely surrounded by the troops of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and soon began a shootout. From this point on, the defenders of the Winter Palace, not wanting to die for the Provisional Government, began to leave their positions.
Junkers of the Mikhailovsky School, and the Cossacks followed them. Women lasted longer than all and only ten o'clock in the evening sent parliamentary with a statement about the surrender and a request to release them from the palace. They were given the opportunity to go out, but under the condition of complete disarmament. After some time, the female division in full force was posted in the barracks of the Pavlovsky reserve regiment, and then sent to the place of its permanent deployment in Levashovo.
Capture power by the Bolsheviks and subsequent events
After the October armed coup, it was decided to eliminate the female battalion. However return home in military form It was too dangerous. With the help of the "Committee of Public Security" acting in Petrograd, women managed to reach civilian clothes and get to their homes in this form.
It is absolutely reliably known that in the period of events that Speech, Bochkareva Maria Leontievna, was at the front and did not accept any personal participation. This is documented. However, firmly rooted the myth that it was she who commanded the defenders of the Winter Palace. Even in the famous Kinolent S. Eisenstein "October" in one of the characters without difficulty, you can find out its image.
The further fate of this woman was very difficult. When the Civil War began, Russian Jeanne Dark - Maria Bochkareva - turned out to be literally between two lights. Being heard about her authority among soldiers and combat skills, both opposing parties tried to attract Mary into their ranks. Initially, in Smolny, high-ranking representatives of the new power (according to her, Lenin and Trotsky) persuaded a woman to accept the command of one of the Red Guard units.
Then, General Marushevsky, who commanded the White Guard forces in the north of the country, tried to incline her to cooperate and charged the Bochkolar formation of combat units. But in both cases she refused: one thing is to fight with ingenians and protect their homeland, and quite another - raise your hand on the compatriot. Her refusal was absolutely categorical, for which Maria was barely not paid to freedom - the hung General ordered her to arrest, but fortunately, the British allies came down.
Foreign tour Mary
Its further fate takes the most unexpected turnover - fulfilling the instruction of General Kornilov, Bochkareva, for the purpose of agitation goes to America and England. She went to this voyage, changing the sister of mercy and having false documents with them. It's hard to believe, but this simple peasant woman, barely skipped reading and writing, very adequately held herself at dinner in the White House, where she invited President Wilson on Independence Day. She was not embarrassed at the audience that the king of England was arranged in Maria arrived in an officer form and with all combat awards. It was the English monarch that called her Russian Jeanne d'Ark.
Of all the questions defined by the Bochkojoy, the heads of state, it found it difficult to answer only one thing: for the red it or white? This question did not make sense. For Mary and those and others were brothers, and civil war caused only deep grief in it. During the stay in America, Bochkarev dictated one of the Russian emigrants to one of the Russian emigrants, which he edited and published under the name "Yashka" - front-nicknamer Bochkolar. The book came out of print in 1919 and immediately became a bestseller.
Last task
Soon Maria returned to Russia covered civil War. She fulfilled his agitational mission, but it was categorically refused to take a weapon, which was the reason for the breaking of relations with the command of the Arkhangelsk Front. The former enthusiastic reading was changed by a cold condemnation. Related experiences have become the cause of deep depression, the way out of which Maria tried to find in alcohol. She was noticeably descended, and the command sent her away from the front, in the rear city of Tomsk.
Here, Bochkareva was destined to serve the Fatherland - after the persuasion of the Supreme Admiral A. V. Kolchak, she agreed to form a volunteer sanitary squad. Speaking to numerous audiences, Mary in a short time managed to attract more than two hundred volunteers into its ranks. But the swift attack of the red prevented bringing this thing to the end.
Life that has become a legend
When Tomsk was captured by Bolsheviks, Bochkareva voluntarily appeared in the commandant and passed the weapon. From her proposal of cooperation, the new authorities refused. After a while she was arrested and sent to Krasnoyarsk. The investigators of the special department were confused, as it was difficult to present any charge to her - Maria did not participate in hostilities against the red. But, at her misfortune, the deputy head of the special department of I. P. Pavlowovsky arrived in the city - stupid and ruthless executioner. Not delight in the essence of the case, he gave the order - to shoot that it was performed immediately. The death of Maria Bochkoyeva came on May 16, 1919.
But the life of this amazing woman was so unusual that her death herself gave rise to many legends. It is definitely unknown where the grave of Maria Leontievna Bochkareva is located, and this gave a reason for rumors that she miraculously escaped the execution and lived under someone else's name until the end of the forties. There is another unusual plot generated by her death.
It is based on the question: "For what was shot by Maria Bochkarev?", After all, direct accusations could not be presented. In response to this, the next legend claims that the brazed yashka hid the American gold in Tomsk and refused to inform the Bolsheviks his location. There is still a number of incredible stories. But the main legend is, of course, Maria Bochkareva herself, whose biography could serve as a plot for the most exciting novel.
