MARIA BOCHKAREVA
Bochkareva Maria Leontievna (née Frolkova, July 1889 - May 1920) - often considered the first Russian female officer(produced during the revolution of 1917). Bochkareva created the first female battalion in the history of the Russian army. Cavalier of the George Cross.
In July 1889, the third child, daughter Marusya, was born to the peasants of the village of Nikolskoye, Kirillovsky district, Novgorod province, Leonty Semenovich and Olga Eleazarovna Frolkov. Soon the family, fleeing poverty, moved to Siberia, where the government promised the settlers large plots of land and financial support. But, apparently, it was not possible to get away from poverty here either. At the age of fifteen, Mary was married. The following entry was preserved in the book of the Resurrection Church dated January 22, 1905: “Afanasy Sergeevich Bochkarev, 23 years old, of the Orthodox faith, living in the Tomsk province, Tomsk district of the Semiluk volost of the village of Bolshoe Kuskovo, married the maiden Maria Leontievna Frolkova, of the Orthodox faith…” . They settled in Tomsk. Married life went wrong almost immediately, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunken husband without regret. Maria left him for the butcher Yakov Buk. In May 1912, Buk was arrested on charges of robbery and sent to serve his sentence in Yakutsk. Bochkareva followed him on foot to Eastern Siberia, where they opened a butcher's shop for cover, although in reality Buk hunted in a gang of hunghuz. Soon the police came on the trail of the gang, and Buk was transferred to a settlement in the taiga village of Amga.
Although Bochkareva again followed in his footsteps, her betrothed took to drink and began to engage in assault. At this time, the first broke out World War. Bochkareva decided to join the ranks of the army and, having parted with her Yashka, arrived in Tomsk. The military refused to enroll the girl in the 24th reserve battalion and advised her to go to the front as a nurse. Then Bochkareva sent a telegram to the tsar, which was unexpectedly followed by a positive response. So she got to the front.
At first, a woman in uniform caused ridicule and harassment by her colleagues, but her bravery in battle brought her universal respect, the St. George Cross and three medals. In those years, she was given the nickname "Yashka", in memory of her unlucky life partner. After two wounds and countless battles, Bochkareva was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer.
In 1917, Kerensky turned to Bochkareva with a request to organize a "women's death battalion"; his wife and St. Petersburg institutes were involved in the patriotic project, with a total number of up to 2000 people. In an unusual military unit, iron discipline reigned: subordinates complained to their superiors that Bochkareva "beats their faces like a real sergeant major of the old regime." Not many have withstood such a circumvention: for short term the number of female volunteers was reduced to three hundred. The rest separated into a special women's battalion that defended the Winter Palace during the October Revolution.
In the summer of 1917, Bochkareva's detachment distinguished itself at Smorgon; his steadfastness made an indelible impression on the command (Anton Denikin). After the shell shock received in that battle, Ensign Bochkareva was sent to the Petrograd hospital for recovery, and in the capital she received the rank of second lieutenant, but soon after returning to her position she had to disband the battalion, due to the actual collapse of the front and the October Revolution.
In winter, she was detained by the Bolsheviks on the way to Tomsk. After refusing to cooperate with the new authorities, she was accused of having relations with General Kornilov, the matter almost went to the tribunal. Thanks to the help of one of her former colleagues, Bochkareva broke free and, dressed in the outfit of a sister of mercy, traveled the whole country to Vladivostok, from where she sailed on a campaign trip to the USA and Europe.
In April 1918, Bochkareva arrived in San Francisco. With the support of the influential and wealthy Florence Harriman, the daughter of a Russian peasant crossed the United States and was awarded an audience with President Woodrow Wilson at the White House on July 10. According to eyewitnesses, Bochkareva's story about her dramatic fate and pleas for help against the Bolsheviks moved the president to tears. 
After visiting London, where she met with King George V and secured his financial support, Bochkareva arrived in Arkhangelsk in August 1918. She hoped to raise local women to fight the Bolsheviks, but things went badly. General Marushevsky, in an order dated December 27, 1918, announced that the conscription of women to an unsuitable for them military service would be a disgrace to the population of the Northern Region, and forbade Bochkareva to wear the self-appointed officer uniform.
The following year, she was already in Tomsk under the banner of Admiral Kolchak, trying to put together a battalion of nurses. She regarded Kolchak's flight from Omsk as a betrayal, voluntarily appeared before the local authorities, who took a written undertaking not to leave her.
Siberian period (19th year, on the Kolchak fronts...)
A few days later, during a church service, 31-year-old Bochkareva was taken into custody by security officers. Clear evidence of her betrayal or collaboration with the whites could not be found, and the proceedings dragged on 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 Cheka of the 5th Army, Ivan Pavlunovsky, and his deputy Shimanovsky. But in the conclusion of the Russian prosecutor's office on the rehabilitation of Bochkareva in 1992, it is said that there is no evidence of her execution.
M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a propaganda trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, specifically asked to meet with her and took her with him to Petrograd to agitate the "war to a victorious end" in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the congress of soldiers deputies of the Petrosoviet. In a speech to the delegates of the congress, Bochkareva for the first time voiced her idea of \u200b\u200bcreating shock women's "death battalions". After that, she was invited to a meeting of the Provisional Government to repeat her proposal.
“I was told that my idea was excellent, but I need to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. Together with Rodzyanka, I went to Brusilov’s Headquarters. Brusilov told me in the office that you rely on women, and that the formation of a women’s battalion is the first in the world. Can't women dishonor Russia? I told Brusilov that I myself am not sure about women, but if you give me full authority, then I guarantee that my battalion will not dishonor Russia. Brusilov told me that he believes me, and will do her best to help in the formation of the women's volunteer battalion."
Battalion recruits
On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony of presenting a new military unit of a white banner with the inscription "The first women's military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva" was held. On June 29, the Military Council approved the regulation "On the formation of military units from female volunteers."
“Kerensky listened with obvious impatience. It was obvious that he had already made a decision on this matter. He had only one doubt: whether I could maintain high morale and morality in this battalion. Kerensky said that he would allow me to begin formation immediately<…>When Kerensky escorted me to the door, his eyes rested on General Polovtsev. He asked him to give me any help needed. I almost suffocated with happiness."
The appearance of the Bochkareva detachment served as an impetus for the formation of women's detachments in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to the intensifying processes of destruction of the entire state, the creation of these women's shock parts were never completed.
Recruit training
Officially, as of October 1917, there were: 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion (infantry); Maritime women's team (Oranienbaum); Cavalry 1st Petrograd Battalion of the Women's Military Union; Minsk separate guard squad of female volunteers. The first three battalions visited the front, only the 1st battalion of Bochkareva was in the battles.
The mass of soldiers and the Soviets perceived the "women's battalions of death" (however, like all other "shock units") "with hostility." Front-line shock workers were not called anything other than prostitutes. In early July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded the disbandment of all "women's battalions", both because they were "unsuitable for military service" and because the formation of such battalions "is a covert maneuver of the bourgeoisie that wants to wage war to a victorious end" 
Solemn farewell to the front of the First Women's Battalion. Photo. Moscow Red Square. summer 1917
On June 27, the "death battalion" consisting of two hundred volunteers arrived in the active army - in the rear units of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army of the Western Front in the area of the city of Molodechno. On July 7, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock women, received an order to take up positions at the front near the town of Krevo. The "death battalion" took up positions on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, the first battle of the Bochkareva battalion took place. In the bloody battles that lasted until July 10, 170 women participated. The regiment repelled 14 German attacks. Volunteers went on the counterattack several times. Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in a report about the action of the "death battalion":
The detachment of Bochkareva behaved heroically in battle, all the time in the front line, serving on a par with the soldiers. During the attack of the Germans, on his own initiative, he rushed as one in a counterattack; brought cartridges, went into secrets, and some went into reconnaissance; With their work, the death team set an example of courage, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes is worthy of the title of a warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.
Private of the Women's Battalion Pelageya Saygin
The battalion lost 30 men killed and 70 wounded. Maria Bochkareva, herself wounded in this battle for the fifth time, spent 1½ months in the hospital and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.
Such heavy losses of volunteers had other consequences for the women's battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief L. G. Kornilov, by his Order, prohibited the creation of new women's "death battalions" for combat use, and already created parts were ordered to be used only in auxiliary areas (security functions, communications, sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with weapons in their hands wrote statements asking them to be fired from the "parts of death"
One of the women's death battalions (1st Petrograd, under the command of the Life Guards of the Keksholmsky Regiment: 39 Staff Captain A. V. Loskov), together with junkers and other units loyal to the oath, took part in the defense of the Winter Palace in October 1917. where the Provisional Government was located.
On November 7, a battalion stationed near the Levashovo station of Finlyandskaya railway, was supposed to go to the Romanian front (according to the plans of the command, it was supposed to send each of the formed women's battalions to the front to raise the morale of male soldiers - one for each of the four fronts of the Eastern Front). 
1st Petrograd Women's Battalion
big size
But on November 6, the battalion commander Loskov received an order to send the battalion to Petrograd "for the parade" (in fact, to protect the Provisional Government). Loskov, having learned about the real task, not wanting to involve volunteers in a political confrontation, withdrew the entire battalion from Petrograd back to Levashovo, with the exception of the 2nd company (137 people). 
2nd company of the 1st Petrograd women's battalion
The headquarters of the Petrograd Military District tried, with the help of two platoons of volunteers and units of cadets, to ensure the wiring of the Nikolaevsky, Palace and Liteiny bridges, but the Sovietized sailors frustrated this task. 
Volunteers on the square in front of the Winter Palace. November 7, 1917
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 by the revolutionaries, the company surrendered, was disarmed and taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier Regiment, where some shock women were “mistreated” - 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 November 8, the company was sent to the place of its former deployment in Levashovo.
After the October Revolution, the Bolshevik government, which had set a course for the complete collapse of the army, for an immediate defeat in the war and for the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany, was not interested in preserving the "shock units". On November 30, 1917, the Military Council of the still old War Ministry issued an order to disband the "women's death battalions". Shortly before this, on November 19, by order of the Military Ministry, all female soldiers were promoted to officers, "for military merit." However, many volunteers remained in their units until January 1918 and beyond. Some of them moved to the Don and took part in the fight against Bolshevism in the ranks of the White movement.
The future heroine of the Russian-American blockbuster "Battalion", which our modern "patriots" watch with aspiration, Maria Bochkareva was born in 1889 in the family of peasants in the village of Nikolskoye, Novgorod province, Leonty and Olga Frolkov. The family, fleeing poverty and hunger, moved to Siberia, where fifteen-year-old Maria was married to a local drunkard. Bochkareva after some time left her husband for the butcher Yakov Buk, who led a local gang of robbers. In May 1912, Buk was arrested and sent to serve his sentence in Yakutsk. Bochkareva followed Yasha on foot to Eastern Siberia, where the two of them again opened a butcher's shop to avert their eyes, although in fact Buk, with the participation of his mistress, organized a gang of hunghuz and traded in the usual robbery on the high road. Soon the police came on the trail of the gang, Buk and Bochkareva were arrested and transferred to a settlement in the remote taiga village of Amga, where there was already no one to rob.
The narrowed Bochkareva, from such grief and the inability to do what he loves, namely to rob, as is usual in Russia, took to drink and began to train in the massacre of his mistress. At this time, the First World War broke out, and Bochkareva decided to end her taiga-robber stage of life and go to the front, especially since Yashka became more and more brutal with longing. Only the entry into the army as a volunteer allowed Mary to leave the place of settlement, determined by the police. The male military refused to enroll the girl in the 24th reserve battalion and advised her to go to the front as a nurse. Bochkareva, not wanting to carry the wounded and wash the bandages, sent a telegram to the tsar with a request to give her the opportunity to shoot the Germans to her heart's content. The telegram reached the addressee, and the king unexpectedly received a positive answer. So the mistress of the Siberian robber got to the front.
At first, a woman in uniform caused ridicule and harassment by her colleagues, but her bravery in battle brought her universal respect, the St. George Cross and three medals. In those years, she was given the nickname "Yashka", in memory of her unlucky life partner. After two wounds and countless battles, Bochkareva was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer.
M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a campaign trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, took her with him to Petrograd to agitate the “war to a victorious end” among the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the Congress of Soldiers’ Deputies of the Petrograd Soviet.
After a series of speeches by Bochkareva, Kerensky, in a fit of yet another propaganda adventurism, turned to her with a proposal to organize a "women's battalion of death." Both Kerensky's wife and St. Petersburg institute girls were involved in this pseudo-patriotic project, up to 2000 girls in total. In an unusual military unit, arbitrariness reigned, to which Bochkareva was accustomed to in the army: subordinates complained to their superiors that Bochkareva "beats their faces like a real wahmister of the old regime." Not many survived such treatment: in a short time, the number of female volunteers was reduced to 300.
But nevertheless, on June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral in Petrograd, a solemn ceremony was held to present a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first women's military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." On June 29, the Military Council approved the regulation "On the formation of military units from female volunteers." The appearance of Bochkareva's detachment served as an impetus for the formation of women's detachments in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but in connection with historical development events, the creation of these female shock units was never completed.
Strict discipline was established in the women's battalions: rising at five in the morning, classes until ten in the evening, and simple soldier food. Women were shaved bald. Black epaulettes with a red stripe and an emblem in the form of a skull and two crossed bones symbolized "unwillingness to live if Russia perishes."
M. Bochkareva banned any party propaganda and the organization of any councils and committees in her battalion. Due to harsh discipline, a split occurred in the battalion that was still being formed. Some women made an attempt to form a soldiers' committee and sharply criticized Bochkareva's brutal management methods. There was a split in the battalion. M. Bochkareva was called in turn to the commander of the district, General Polovtsev and Kerensky. Both conversations were stormy, but Bochkareva stood her ground: she would not have any committees!
She reorganized her battalion. About 300 women remained in it, and it became the 1st Petrograd shock battalion. And from the rest of the women who disagreed with Bochkareva's command methods, the 2nd Moscow shock battalion was formed.
The 1st Battalion received its baptism of fire on July 9, 1917. The women came under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire. Although the reports said that "the Bochkareva detachment behaved heroically in battle," it became clear that women's military units could not become an effective fighting force. After the battle, 200 female soldiers remained in the ranks. Losses were 30 killed and 70 wounded. M. Bochkareva was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, and later - to lieutenant. Such heavy losses of volunteers had other consequences for the women's battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief L. G. Kornilov, by his Order, forbade the creation of new women's "death battalions" for combat use, and the already created units were ordered to be used only in auxiliary sectors (security functions, communications , sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with weapons in their hands wrote statements asking them to be fired from the "parts of death."
The second Moscow battalion, which had left the command of Bochkareva, was destined to be among the last defenders of the Provisional Government during the days of the October Revolution. Kerensky managed to inspect this single military unit the day before the coup. As a result, only the second company was selected to guard the Winter Palace, but not the entire battalion. The defense of the Winter Palace, as we know, ended in failure. Immediately after the capture of the Winter Palace, the most sensational stories about the terrible fate of the women's battalion defending the palace circulated in the anti-Bolshevik press. It was said that some female soldiers were thrown onto the pavement from the windows, almost all the rest were raped, and many committed suicide themselves, not being able to survive all these horrors.
The city council appointed a special commission to investigate the case. On November 16 (3), this commission returned from Levashov, where the women's battalion was quartered. Deputy Tyrkova said: "All these 140 girls are not only alive, not only not injured, but also not subjected to those terrible insults that we have heard and read about." After the capture of Zimny, the women were first sent to the Pavlovsky barracks, where some of them were really treated badly by the soldiers, but that now most of them are in Levashov, and the rest are scattered in private houses in Petrograd. Another member of the commission testified that not a single woman was thrown out of the windows of the Winter Palace, that three were raped, but already in the Pavlovsk barracks, and that one volunteer committed suicide by jumping out of a window, and she left a note in which she writes that “ disappointed in her ideals.
The slanderers were also exposed by the volunteers themselves. “In view of the fact that in a number of places malicious persons are spreading false, unsubstantiated rumors that, allegedly, during the disarmament of the women’s battalion, sailors and Red Guards committed violence and excesses, we, the undersigned,” the letter from the soldiers of the former women’s battalion said, “ we consider it our civic duty to declare that nothing of the kind happened, that it is all lies and slander” (November 4, 1917)
In January 1918, the women's battalions were formally disbanded, but many of their members continued to serve in parts of the White Guard armies.
Maria Bochkareva herself took an active part in the White movement. On behalf of General Kornilov, she went to visit the best "friends" of Russia - the Americans - to ask for help in the fight against the Bolsheviks. We observe approximately the same thing today, when various Parubiy and Semenchenko go to the same America to ask for money for the war with the Donbass and Russia. Then, in 1919, the help of Bochkareva, as well as today's emissaries of the Kiev junta, was promised by the American senators. Upon returning to Russia on November 10, 1919, Bochkareva met with Admiral Kolchak. On his behalf, she formed a women's sanitary detachment of 200 people. But in the same November 1919, after the capture of Omsk by the Red Army, she was arrested and shot.
Thus ended the "glorious" path of the new idol of our patriotic public.
From a family of illiterate peasants, Maria Bochkareva was clearly an extraordinary person. Her name resounded throughout Russian Empire. Still: a female officer, St. George Knight, organizer and commander of the first female "death battalion". She met with Kerensky and Brusilov, Lenin and Trotsky, Kornilov and Kolchak, Winston Churchill, English king George V and US President Woodrow Wilson. All of them noted the extraordinary fortitude of this woman.
The hard lot of a Russian woman
Maria Bochkareva (Frolkova) was from Novgorod peasants. In the hope of a better life, the Frolkov family moved to Siberia, where land was distributed to the peasants for free. But the Frolkovs could not raise the virgin lands, settled in the Tomsk province, lived in extreme poverty. At the age of 15, Marusya was married, and she became Bochkareva. Together with her husband, she unloaded barges, worked in the asphalt laying team. Here, for the first time, the extraordinary organizational skills of Bochkareva manifested themselves, very soon she became an assistant foreman, 25 people worked under her supervision. And her husband remained a laborer. He drank and beat his wife with mortal combat. Maria fled from him to Irkutsk, where she met with Yakov Buk. Maria's new common-law husband was a player, moreover, with criminal inclinations. As part of a gang of hunghuz, Yakov participated in robbery attacks. In the end, he was arrested and exiled to the Yakutsk province. Maria went after her beloved to the distant Amga. Jacob did not appreciate the feat of self-sacrifice of a woman who loves him and soon began to drink and beat Maria. There seemed to be no way out of this vicious circle. But the First World War broke out.
Private Bochkareva
On foot through the taiga, Maria went to Tomsk, where she appeared at the recruiting station and asked to be recorded as an ordinary soldier. The officer reasonably suggested that she sign up as a nurse for the Red Cross or some auxiliary service. But Maria certainly wanted to go to the front. Having borrowed 8 rubles, she sent a telegram to the Highest Name: why was she denied the right to fight and die for the Motherland? The answer came surprisingly quickly, and, by the highest permission, an exception was made for Mary. Thus, “Private Bochkareva” appeared in the lists of the battalion. They cut her hair like a typewriter and gave her a rifle, two pouches, a tunic, trousers, an overcoat, a hat, and everything else that a soldier should have.
On the very first night, there were those who wanted to check “by touch”, but is this unsmiling soldier really a woman? Maria turned out to have not only a strong character, but also a heavy hand: without looking, she beat the daredevils with everything that came to hand - boots, a bowler hat, a pouch. And the fist of the former asphalt paver turned out to be not at all a lady's. In the morning, Maria didn’t say a word about the “night fight”, but in the classroom she was among the first. Soon the whole company was proud of their unusual soldier (where else is there such a one?) And was ready to kill anyone who would encroach on the honor of their “Yashka” (Maria received such a nickname from fellow soldiers). In February 1915, the 24th reserve battalion was sent to the front. Maria refused the offer of the officers to go in a staff car near Molodechno and arrived with everyone else in a wagon.
Front
On the third day after arriving at the front, the company in which Bochkareva served went on the attack. Of the 250 people, 70 reached the line of wire barriers. Unable to overcome the barriers, the soldiers turned back. Less than 50 reached their trenches. As soon as it got dark, Maria crawled to the neutral zone and dragged the wounded into the trench all night. She saved almost 50 people that night, for which she was nominated for an award and received the St. George Cross of the 4th degree. Bochkareva went on attacks, night sorties, captured prisoners, not one German "took a bayonet." Her fearlessness was legendary. By February 1917, she had 4 wounds and 4 St. George awards (2 crosses and 2 medals), on the shoulders of a senior non-commissioned officer.
Year 1917
At that time, the army was in complete chaos: privates were given equal rights with officers, orders were not carried out, desertion reached unprecedented proportions, decisions on the offensive were made not at headquarters, but at rallies. The soldiers are tired and do not want to fight anymore. Bochkareva does not accept all this: how is it, 3 years of war, so many victims, and all for nothing ?! But those campaigning at the soldiers' rallies for the "war to the bitter end" are simply beaten. In May 1917, M. Rodzianko, chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, arrived at the front. He met with Bochkareva and immediately invited her to Petrograd. According to his plan, Maria should become a participant in a series of propaganda actions for the continuation of the war. But Bochkareva went further than his plans: on May 21, at one of the rallies, she put forward the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a “Shock Women's Death Battalion”.
"Death Battalion" by Maria Bochkareva
The idea was approved and supported by the commander-in-chief Brusilov and Kerensky, who then held the post of military and naval minister. Within a few days, more than 2,000 female volunteers signed up for the battalion in response to Maria's call to the women of Russia to shame the men with their example. Among them were bourgeois and peasant women, domestic servants and university graduates. There were also representatives of noble families of Russia. Bochkareva established strict discipline in the battalion and supported it with her iron fist (in the full sense of the word - she beat the mugs like a real old-time wahmister). A number of women who did not take Bochkarev's measures to manage the battalion broke away and organized their shock battalion (it was he, not the Bochkarev, who defended the Winter Palace in October 1917). Bochkareva's initiative was picked up throughout Russia: in Moscow, Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Simbirsk, Kharkov, Smolensk, Vyatka, Baku, Irkutsk, Mariupol, Odessa, infantry and cavalry women's units and even women's naval teams (Oranienbaum) began to be created. (True, the formation of many was never completed)
On June 21, 1917, Petrograd escorted shock women to the front. With a huge gathering of people, the banner was handed over to the battalion, Kornilov handed Bochkareva a nominal one, and Kerensky - ensign's shoulder straps. On June 27, the battalion arrived at the front, and on July 8 entered the battle.
The vain victims of the women's battalion
The fate of the battalion can be called tragic. The women who went on the attack really dragged the neighboring companies with them. The first line of defense was taken, then the second, the third ... - and that's it. Other parts did not rise. Reinforcements did not arrive. The drummers repulsed several German counterattacks. There was a threat of encirclement. Bochkareva ordered to retreat. The positions taken in battle had to be abandoned. The battalion's casualties (30 killed and 70 wounded) were in vain. Bochkareva herself in that battle was seriously shell-shocked and sent to the hospital. After 1.5 months, she (already in the rank of second lieutenant) returned to the front and found the situation even worse. Shock women served on an equal footing with men, were called up for reconnaissance, rushed into counterattacks, but the example of women did not inspire anyone. 200 surviving shock girls could not save the army from decay. Clashes between them and the soldiers, who were striving to "bayonet to the ground - and home" as soon as possible, threatened to escalate into a civil war in a single regiment. Considering the situation hopeless, Bochkareva disbanded the battalion, and she herself left for Petrograd.
In the ranks of the White movement
She was too prominent a figure to disappear imperceptibly into Petrograd. She was arrested and taken to Smolny. Lenin and Trotsky talked to the famous Maria Bochkareva. The leaders of the revolution tried to attract such a bright personality to cooperation, but Maria, citing injuries, refused. Members of the White movement were also looking for meetings with her. She also told the representative of the underground officer organization, General Anosov, that she would not fight against her people, but she agreed to go to the Don to General Kornilov as a liaison organization. So Bochkareva became a participant in the Civil War. Disguised as a sister of mercy, Mary went south. In Novocherkassk, she handed over letters and documents to Kornilov and went, already as the personal representative of General Kornilov, to ask for help from the Western powers.
Diplomatic mission of Maria Bochkareva
Following through all of Russia, she reached Vladivostok, where she boarded an American ship. On April 3, 1918, Maria Bochkareva went ashore in the port of San Francisco. Newspapers wrote about her, she spoke at meetings, met with prominent public and political figures. The envoy of the White movement was received by US Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State Lansing and US President Woodrow Wilson. Then Maria went to England, where she met with Minister of War Winston Churchill and King George V. Maria begged, persuaded, persuaded all of them to help the White Army, with money, weapons, food, and they all promised her this help. Inspired, Maria goes back to Russia.
In the whirl of the fronts of the Civil War
In August 1918, Bochkareva arrived in Arkhangelsk, where she again took the initiative to organize a women's battalion. The government of the Northern Region reacted coolly to this initiative. General Marushevsky frankly stated that he considers the involvement of women in military service a disgrace. In June 1919, a caravan of ships left Arkhangelsk heading east. In the holds of the ships there are 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 is Admiral Kolchak.
She reached Omsk and met with Kolchak. The admiral made a strong impression on her and instructed the organization of a sanitary detachment. For 2 days, Maria formed a group of 200 people, but the front was already cracking and rolling east. In less than a month, the "third capital" will be abandoned, Kolchak himself has less than six months to live.
Arrest - sentence - death
In the tenth of November, Kolchak left Omsk. Maria did not leave with the retreating troops. Tired of fighting, she decided to reconcile with the Bolsheviks and returned to Tomsk. But her glory was too odious, the burden of Bochkareva's sins before the Soviet government was too heavy. People who took a much less active part in the White movement paid for it with their lives. What can we say about Bochkareva, whose name has repeatedly flashed on the pages of white newspapers. On January 7, 1920, Maria Bochkareva was arrested, and on May 16 she was shot as "irreconcilable and worst enemy Workers' and Peasants' Republic. Rehabilitated in 1992.
The name will return
Maria Bochkareva was not the only woman who fought in the First World War. Thousands of women went to the front as sisters of mercy, many made their way to the front, posing as men. Unlike them, Maria did not hide her belonging to the female sex for a single day, which, however, does not in the least detract from the feat of other “Russian Amazons”. Maria Bochkareva should have taken her rightful place on the pages of the Russian textbook. But, for obvious reasons, Soviet time the slightest mention of her was carefully eradicated. Only a few contemptuous lines of Mayakovsky remained in his poem "Good!".
Currently, a film about Bochkareva and her drummers "Death Battalion" is being shot in St. Petersburg, the release is scheduled for August 2014. We hope that this ribbon will return the name of Maria Bochkareva to the citizens of Russia, and that her star, which was extinguished, will flare up again.
Women's battalions- military formations consisting exclusively of women, created by the Provisional Government, mainly for the propaganda purpose - to raise the patriotic mood in the army and to shame the male soldiers who refuse to fight by their own example. Despite this, they participated in the hostilities of the First World War to a limited extent. One of the initiators of their creation was Maria Bochkareva.
History of occurrence
Senior non-commissioned officer M.L. Bochkareva, who was at the front with the highest permission (since women were forbidden to be sent to units of the army) 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, specifically asked to meet with her and took her with him to Petrograd to campaign for the "war to a victorious end" in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the congress delegates soldier's deputies of the Petrosoviet. In a speech to the delegates of the congress, Bochkareva spoke for the first time about the creation of shock women's "death battalions". After that, she was invited to present her proposal at a meeting of the Provisional Government.
I was told that my idea was excellent, but I need to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. Together with Rodzyanka, I went to Brusilov's Headquarters ... Brusilov told me in his office that you rely on women and that the formation of a women's battalion is the first in the world. Can't women shame Russia? I told Brusilov that I myself am not sure about women, but if you give me full authority, then I guarantee that my battalion will not disgrace Russia ... Brusilov told me that he trusts me and will do his best to help in the formation of a women's volunteer battalion .
M. L. Bochkareva
The appearance of the Bochkareva detachment served as an impetus for the formation of women's detachments in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to the intensifying processes of the destruction of the Russian state, the creation of these women's drums parts were never completed.
Officially, as of October 1917, there were: 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion (infantry); Maritime women's team (Oranienbaum); Cavalry 1st Petrograd Battalion of the Women's Military Union; Minsk separate guard squad of female volunteers. The first three battalions visited the front, only the 1st battalion of Bochkareva participated in the hostilities.
Attitude towards women's battalions
As the Russian historian S. A. Solntseva wrote, the mass of soldiers and the Soviets took the “women's death battalions” (however, like all other shock units) “with hostility”. Front-line shock workers did not call them anything other than "prostitutes". In early July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded that all "women's battalions" be disbanded as "unsuitable for military service" - in addition, the formation of such battalions was regarded by the Petrograd Soviet as "a covert maneuver of the bourgeoisie, wishing to wage war to a victorious end" .
Let's pay tribute to the memory of the brave. But ... there is no place for a woman on the fields of death, where horror reigns, where there is blood, dirt and deprivation, where hearts harden and morals terribly coarsen. There are many ways of public and state service that are much more in line with the vocation of a woman.
Participation in the battles of the First World War
On June 27, 1917, the "battalion of death" consisting of two hundred people arrived in the active army - in the rear units of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army of the Western Front in the Novospassky Forest area, north of the city of Molodechno, near Smorgon.
On July 9, 1917, according to the plans of the Stavka, the Western Front was to go on the offensive. On July 7, 1917, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock women, was ordered to take positions at the front near the town of Krevo. "Death Battalion" was on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, 1917, he entered the battle for the first time, since the enemy, knowing about the plans of the Russian command, launched a preemptive strike and wedged into the location of the Russian troops. For three days the regiment repelled 14 attacks German troops. Several times the battalion launched counterattacks and drove the Germans out of the Russian positions occupied the day before. Here is what Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in his report on the actions of the "death battalion":
The detachment of Bochkareva behaved heroically in battle, all the time in the front line, serving on a par with the soldiers. During the attack of the Germans, on his own initiative, he rushed as one in a counterattack; brought cartridges, went into secrets, and some went into reconnaissance; With their work, the death team set an example of courage, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes is worthy of the title of a warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.
According to Bochkareva herself, out of 170 people who participated in the hostilities, the battalion lost up to 30 people killed and up to 70 wounded. Maria Bochkareva, herself wounded in this battle for the fifth time, spent a month and a half in the hospital and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.
Such heavy losses among female volunteers also had other consequences for the women's battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief, General L. G. Kornilov, by his order forbade the creation of new women's "death battalions" for combat use, and the already created units were ordered to be used only in auxiliary sectors ( security functions, communications, sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many female volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with weapons in their hands wrote statements asking them to be fired from the "parts of death".
Defense of the Provisional Government
One of the women's death battalions (1st Petrograd, under the command of the Life Guards of the Keksholm Regiment: 39 Staff Captain A. V. Loskov) in October, together with the junkers and other units loyal to the Februaryists, took part in the defense of the Winter Palace , which housed the Provisional Government.
On October 25 (November 7), the battalion, stationed in the area of the Levashovo station of the Finnish Railway, was supposed to go to the Romanian Front (according to the plans of the command, it was supposed to send each of the formed women's battalions to the front to raise the morale of male soldiers - one for each of the four fronts of the Eastern Front). But on October 24 (November 6), the battalion commander, staff captain Loskov, received an order to send the battalion to Petrograd "for the parade" (in fact, to protect the Provisional Government). Loskov, having learned about the real task and not wanting to draw his subordinates into a political confrontation, withdrew the entire battalion from Petrograd back to Levashovo, with the exception of the 2nd company (137 people).
The company took up defense on the first floor of the Winter Palace in the area to the right of the main gate to Millionnaya Street. At night, during the assault on the palace, the company surrendered, was disarmed and taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier regiment, where, with some shock women "treated badly"- as established by a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma, three shock girls were raped (although, perhaps, few dared to admit it), one committed suicide. On October 26 (November 8), the company was sent to its former location in Levashovo.
Liquidation of women's death battalions
Form and appearance
The soldiers of the Women's Battalion of Bochkareva wore the symbol of "Adam's head" on their chevrons. Women passed a medical examination and cut their hair almost bald.
Songs
March forward, forward to fight
Soldier women!
The dashing sound calls you to battle,
The adversaries will shudder
From the song of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion
In culture
Writer Boris Akunin wrote the detective story "Battalion" of Angels, which takes place in 1917 in the women's death battalion. From real prototypes the book shows the daughter of Admiral Skrydlov (under the name of Alexander Shatskaya) and Maria Bochkareva.
In February 2015, the Russian feature film "
There are so many legends about this amazing woman that it is difficult to say with complete certainty what is true and what is fiction. But it is reliably known that the King of England George V, during a personal audience, called a simple peasant woman, who only learned to read and write at the end of her life, “Russian Joan of Arc”, and V. Wilson honorably received in the White House. Her name is Bochkareva Maria Leontievna. Fate prepared for her the honor of becoming the first female officer in the Russian army.
Childhood, youth and only love
The future heroine of the women's battalion was born into a simple peasant family in the village of Nikolskaya, Novgorod province. She was the third child of her parents. They lived from hand to mouth and, in order to somehow improve their plight, moved to Siberia, where the government in those years launched a program to help immigrants. But the hopes were not justified, and in order to get rid of the extra eater, Mary was married early to an unloved person, and besides, a drunkard. From him she got the surname - Bochkareva.
Very soon, a young woman forever parted with her husband, who was disgusted with her, and begins a free life. Then she meets her first and last love in her life. Unfortunately, Maria was fatally unlucky with the men: if the first was a drunkard, then the second turned out to be a real bandit who took part in robberies along with a gang of "hunghuz" - immigrants from China and Manchuria. But, as they say, love is evil... His name was Yankel (Yakov) Buk. When he was finally arrested and escorted to Yakutsk by court, Maria Bochkareva went after him, like the wives of the Decembrists.
But the desperate Yankel was incorrigible and even in the settlement he hunted by buying stolen goods, and later by robberies. To save her lover from inevitable hard labor, Maria was forced to give in to the harassment of the local governor, but she herself could not survive this forced betrayal - she tried to poison herself. The story of her love ended sadly: Buk, having learned about what had happened, in the heat of jealousy attempted on the governor. He was tried and sent by escort to a deaf remote place. Maria never saw him again.
To the front with the personal permission of the emperor
The news of the outbreak of the First World War caused Russian society unprecedented patriotic upsurge. Thousands of volunteers were sent to the front. Their example was followed by Maria Bochkareva. The history of her enrollment in the army is very unusual. Turning in November 1914 to the commander of the reserve battalion, located in Tomsk, she was refused with ironic advice to ask permission personally from the Emperor. Contrary to the expectations of the battalion commander, she really wrote a petition addressed to the highest name. What was the general astonishment when, after a while, a positive answer came with the personal signature of Nicholas II.
After a short course of study, in February 1915, Maria Bochkareva finds herself at the front as a civilian soldier - in those years there was such a status for military personnel. Taking up this unfeminine business, she, along with men, fearlessly went into bayonet attacks, pulled the wounded out from under the fire and showed genuine heroism. Here, the nickname Yashka was assigned to her, which she chose for herself in memory of her lover - Yakov Buk. There were two men in her life - a husband and a lover. From the first she left her surname, from the second - a nickname.
When the company commander was killed in March 1916, Maria, taking his place, raised the fighters on the offensive, which became disastrous for the enemy. For her courage, Bochkareva was awarded the St. George Cross and three medals, and soon she was promoted to junior non-commissioned officer. Being on the front line, she was repeatedly wounded, but remained in the ranks, and only a severe wound in the thigh brought Maria to the hospital, where she lay for four months.
Creation of the first women's battalion in history
Returning to the position, Maria Bochkareva - the Knight of St. George and a recognized fighter - found her regiment in a state of complete decomposition. During her absence, the February Revolution took place, and endless rallies were held among the soldiers, alternating with fraternization with the "Germans". Deeply indignant at this, Maria looked for an opportunity to influence what was happening. Soon such an opportunity presented itself.
M. Rodzianko, chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, arrived at the front to conduct campaigning. With his support, Bochkareva ended up in Petrograd in early March, where she began to realize her long-standing dream - the creation of military units from patriotic female volunteers ready to defend the Motherland. In this undertaking, she met with the support of the Minister of War of the Provisional Government A. Kerensky and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General A. Brusilov.
In response to the call of Maria Bochkareva, more than two thousand Russian women expressed their desire to join the ranks of the unit being created with weapons in their hands. Worthy of attention is the fact that among them a significant part were educated women - students and graduates of the Bestuzhev courses, and a third of them had a secondary education. At that time, not a single male unit could boast of similar indicators. Among the "drummers" - this was the name assigned to them - there were representatives of all strata of society - from peasant women to aristocrats, bearing the loudest and most famous surnames in Russia.
The commander of the women's battalion, Maria Bochkareva, established iron discipline and the strictest subordination among her subordinates. The rise was at five in the morning, and the whole day until ten in the evening was filled with endless activities, interrupted only by a short rest. Many women, mostly from wealthy families, had difficulty getting used to simple soldier food and a strict routine. But this was not their greatest difficulty.
It is known that soon complaints began to come to the name of rudeness and arbitrariness on the part of Bochkareva. Even the facts of assault were indicated. In addition, Maria strictly forbade political agitators, representatives of various party organizations from appearing at the location of her battalion, and this was a direct violation of the rules established by the February Revolution. As a result of mass discontent, two hundred and fifty "drummers" left Bochkareva and joined another formation.
Sending to the front
And then the long-awaited day came, when on June 21, 1917, on the square in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral, at the confluence of thousands of people, the new battle banner. It was written on it: "The first women's command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." Needless to say, how much excitement the mistress of the celebration herself experienced, standing on the right flank in a new uniform? The day before, she was granted the rank of ensign, and Maria - the first female officer in the Russian army - was rightfully the heroine of that day.
But this is the peculiarity of all holidays - they are replaced by weekdays. So the festivities at St. Isaac's Cathedral were replaced by a gray and by no means romantic trench life. Young defenders of the Fatherland faced a reality that they had no idea about before. They found themselves among a degraded and morally decomposed mass of soldiers. Bochkareva herself in her memoirs calls the soldiers "unbridled shanty". To protect women from possible violence, it was even necessary to put sentries near the barracks.
However, after the very first military operation, in which the battalion of Maria Bochkareva participated, the “shocks”, having shown courage worthy of real fighters, were forced to treat themselves with respect. This happened in early July 1917 near Smorgan. After such a heroic beginning, even such an opponent of the participation of women's units in hostilities as General A.I. Kornilov was forced to change his mind.
Hospital in Petrograd and inspection of new units
The women's battalion participated in the battles on a par with all other units and, just like them, suffered losses. Having received a severe concussion in one of the battles that took place on July 9, Maria Bochkareva was sent for treatment to Petrograd. During her stay at the front in the capital, the women's patriotic movement she started was widely developed. New battalions were formed, staffed from voluntary defenders of the Fatherland.
When Bochkareva was discharged from the hospital, by order of the newly appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief L. Kornilov, she was instructed to inspect these units. The test results were very disappointing. None of the battalions was a sufficiently combat-ready unit. However, the situation of revolutionary turmoil that reigned in the capital hardly made it possible to achieve in a short time positive result and had to put up with it.
Soon Maria Bochkareva returns to her unit. But since that time its organizational ardor has somewhat cooled down. She repeatedly stated that she was disappointed in women and henceforth does not consider it expedient to take them to the front - "sissies and crybabies." It is likely that her demands on her subordinates were extremely high, and what was within her power - combat officer, was beyond the capabilities of ordinary women. Cavalier of the St. George Cross, Maria Bochkareva was by that time promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
Features of the "Women's Battalion of Death"
Since, chronologically, the events described are approaching the famous episode of the defense of the last residence of the Provisional Government (the Winter Palace), we should dwell in more detail on what it was at that time military unit created by Maria Bochkareva. The "Women's Battalion of Death" - as it is customary to call it - in accordance with the law, was considered an independent military unit and was equated in status with a regiment.
The total number of female soldiers was one thousand people. The officers were completely manned, and all of them were experienced commanders who had gone through the fronts of the First World War. The battalion was stationed at the Levashovo station, where the conditions necessary for training were created. In the disposition of the unit, any agitation and party work was strictly prohibited.
The battalion was not supposed to have any political overtones. His purpose was to defend the Fatherland from external enemies, and not to participate in internal political conflicts. The battalion commander was, as mentioned above, Maria Bochkareva. Her biography is inseparable from this combat formation. In the fall, everyone expected an ambulance to be sent to the front, but something else happened.
Defense of the Winter Palace
Unexpectedly, an order was received to one of the battalion units to arrive on October 24 in Petrograd to participate in the parade. In reality, this was only a pretext for attracting "shock women" to defend the Winter Palace from the Bolsheviks who had begun an armed uprising. At that time, the palace garrison consisted of scattered units of Cossacks and junkers of various military schools and did not represent any serious military force.
The women who arrived and settled in the empty premises of the former royal residence were entrusted with the defense of the southeastern wing of the building from the side of Palace Square. On the very first day, they managed to push back a detachment of the Red Guards and take control of the Nikolaevsky bridge. However, the very next day, October 25, the building of the palace was completely surrounded by troops of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and a shootout soon began. From that moment on, the defenders of the Winter Palace, not wanting to die for the Provisional Government, began to leave their positions.
The cadets of the Mikhailovsky School were the first to leave, followed by the Cossacks. The women held out the longest and only by ten o'clock in the evening they sent the parliamentarians with a statement of surrender and a request to let them out of the palace. They were given the opportunity to withdraw, but under the condition of complete disarmament. After some time, the women's unit in full force was placed in the barracks of the Pavlovsky Reserve Regiment, and then sent to the place of its permanent deployment in Levashovo.
Seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and subsequent events
After the October armed coup, it was decided to liquidate the women's battalion. However, returning home to military uniform it was too dangerous. With the help of the "Committee of Public Security" operating in Petrograd, the women managed to get civilian clothes and in this form to get to their homes.
It is absolutely reliably known that during the period of the events in question, Bochkareva Maria Leontievna was at the front and did not take any personal part in them. This is documented. However, the myth that it was she who commanded the defenders of the Winter Palace was firmly rooted. Even in the famous film by S. Eisenstein "October" in one of the characters one can easily recognize her image.
The further fate of this woman was very difficult. When the civil war began, the Russian Joan of Arc - Maria Bochkareva - was literally between two fires. Having heard about her authority among the soldiers and fighting skills, both warring parties tried to attract Maria into their ranks. At first, in Smolny, high-ranking representatives of the new government (according to her, Lenin and Trotsky) persuaded the woman to take 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 persuade her to cooperate and instructed Bochkareva to form combat units. But in both cases, she refused: it is one thing to fight foreigners and defend the Motherland, and quite another to raise a hand against a compatriot. Her refusal was absolutely categorical, for which Maria almost paid with her freedom - the enraged general ordered her arrest, but, fortunately, the English allies stood up.
Maria's foreign tour
Her further fate takes the most unexpected turn - following the instructions of General Kornilov, Bochkareva travels to America and England for the purpose of agitation. She went on this voyage, dressed in the uniform of a sister of mercy and carrying false documents with her. It is hard to believe, but this simple peasant woman, who could barely read and write, behaved with dignity at a dinner at the White House, where President Wilson invited her on America's Independence Day. She was not at all embarrassed at the audience that the King of England arranged for her. In Mary, she arrived in an officer's uniform and with all military awards. It was the English monarch who called her the Russian Joan of Arc.
Of all the questions Bochkareva asked the heads of state, she found it difficult to answer only one: is she for the Reds or for the Whites? This question made no sense to her. For Mary, both of them were brothers, and the civil war caused only deep sorrow in her. During her stay in America, Bochkareva dictated her memoirs to one of the Russian emigrants, which he edited and published under the name "Yashka" - the front-line nickname of Bochkareva. The book was published in 1919 and immediately became a bestseller.
Last task
Soon Maria returned to Russia, engulfed civil war. She fulfilled her campaigning mission, but categorically refused to take up arms, which caused a break in relations with the command of the Arkhangelsk Front. The former enthusiastic reverence was replaced by cold condemnation. The experiences associated with this caused a deep depression, from which Maria tried to find a way out in alcohol. She noticeably fell, and the command sent her away from the front, to the rear city of Tomsk.
Here Bochkareva was destined to serve the Fatherland for the last time - after the persuasion of the Supreme Admiral A.V. Kolchak, she agreed to form a volunteer sanitary detachment. Speaking to numerous audiences, Maria in a short time managed to attract more than two hundred volunteers to her ranks. But the rapid offensive of the Reds prevented the completion of this matter.
A life that became a legend
When Tomsk was captured by the Bolsheviks, Bochkareva voluntarily appeared at the commandant's office and handed over her weapons. The new authorities refused her offer of cooperation. After some time, she was arrested and sent to Krasnoyarsk. The investigators of the Special Department were confused, since it was difficult to bring any charges against her - Maria did not participate in the hostilities against the Reds. But, to her misfortune, the deputy head of the special department of the Cheka, IP Pavlunovsky, arrived in the city from Moscow - a stupid and ruthless executioner. Without delving into the essence of the matter, he gave the order - to shoot, which was executed immediately. Maria Bochkareva died on May 16, 1919.
But the life of this amazing woman was so unusual that her very death gave rise to many legends. It is not known exactly where the grave of Maria Leontievna Bochkareva is located, and this gave rise to rumors that she miraculously escaped execution and lived under a false name until the end of the forties. There is another unusual plot generated by her death.
It is based on the question: “Why was Maria Bochkareva shot?” Because they could not bring direct charges against her. In response to this, another legend claims that the brave Yashka hid American gold in Tomsk and refused to tell the Bolsheviks its whereabouts. There are many more incredible stories. But the main legend is, of course, Maria Bochkareva herself, whose biography could serve as a plot for the most exciting novel.
