June 1917 was marked by a sensation: on the Russian-German front, as part of the Russian army, female military units appeared with the terrifying name “death battalions”.
Women's Death Battalion in World War I
Patriotism and romance
The summer of 1917 did not bring Russia the desired turning point on the fronts of the First World War. In Galicia, the offensive launched by the Russian army was bogged down. The unsuccessful operation led to the loss of about 60 thousand people. Nevertheless, the wave of patriotism that swept Russian society with the outbreak of the world war and was in every possible way fueled by the Provisional Government did not subside.
On June 21, 1917, on St. Isaac's Square in Petrograd, a solemn ceremony was held to include a new unit in the Russian army - the First Women's Military Death Command. He was presented with a military banner and officially entered the list of active military units. After that, the battalion marched in a solemn march through the central streets of the city. The orchestra thundered, the residents of the Russian capital joyfully greeted women with rifles, followed by enthusiastic children. Indeed, the women's military command, the "death battalion" - how new it is, how romantic, how it tickles the nerves of the townsfolk!
Private Bochkarev
Promotional video:
The first idea of creating female military units and sending them to the active army was expressed by Maria Leontyevna Bochkareva, a 28-year-old woman, a simple peasant woman from the Tomsk province with a very difficult fate and in many respects absolutely extraordinary.
At the age of 15, her parents married her off to a bitter drunkard. Soon, Maria left her husband and began to live outside of marriage with another lover. But the happiness was short-lived: her chosen one turned out to be a robber. He was caught, tried and sent into exile in Yakutsk. And Maria, like a Decembrist, walked (!) For 5000 miles to her beloved in Siberia. But there, not appreciating the feat of Mary, her roommate washed down and began to beat her friend from time to time. Unable to tolerate this, Maria left him and in the summer of 1914 returned to her Tomsk province. And then just a war. Bochkareva petitioned to call her into the active army as a simple soldier, but was refused. In return, she was offered to become a sister of mercy, but Maria did not want to dress, she wanted to shoot at the enemy herself and go on the attack. And then she sent a telegram directly to the emperor himself,demanding immediate dispatch to the front. Surprisingly, Nicholas II not only received the dispatch, but also met halfway: Bochkareva in the rank of private got to the front line.
Some men tried to roll up to her, but she managed to fight off everyone, threatening to shoot everyone who encroached on her in place. The entrenching suitors realized that she would do it without flinching, and stopped all attempts. Maria fought wisely and bravely, no worse than many fellow soldiers, she was twice wounded. For bravery and valor she was awarded the St. George Cross and three medals.
Start
In 1917, immediately after the February Revolution, she came to Petrograd with a proposal to create women's military units. This is how she herself later told about it: “Kerensky said that he would allow me to start forming immediately, that my idea was excellent, but I needed to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. I went to Brusilov's headquarters. He told me in his office: “Do you hope for women, because the formation of a women's battalion is the first in the world. Can't women disgrace Russia? " I told him that I myself am not sure of women, but if you give me full authority, then I can guarantee that my battalion will not disgrace Russia. Brusilov said that he believed me."
After that, Alexander Kerensky, at that time the military and naval minister, instructed Bochkareva to form and lead a women's battalion.
Lieutenant Bochkarev
Maria was given the rank of lieutenant, in today's senior lieutenant, and she immediately began to form a battalion of women volunteers. Initially, there were 2,000 of them - young and not so, noblewomen and commoners, female students and teachers, peasant women, Cossacks, soldiers' wives and widows. Among them are Russian, Ukrainian, Estonian, Latvian, Jewish. 2,000 bayonets are even more than a regiment.
Lieutenant Bochkareva, who had seen everything and learned a lot in 3 years at the front, established iron discipline in the battalion. Wake up at 05:00, military affairs until late in the evening. She and the officer-instructors assigned to her to help taught female recruits to dig trenches, go on the attack, shoot (including with a machine gun), and ride a horse. Maria ruthlessly expelled the unwary, she did not stand on ceremony with the dull, and did not restrict herself in expressions, or even could go by in the face.
The archives preserved reports that Bochkareva "beats in the face like a real sergeant-major of the old regime."
Not surprisingly, not everyone was able to withstand this. After a cruel selection, Bochkareva left with her about 300 subordinates, ready for war. The battalion also had its own battle song:
Those who had been eliminated, but remained in the army, were attached to the guards of the Winter Palace - the seat of the Provisional Government. In the last days of June 1917, the battalion of Bochkareva arrived at the front and at the beginning of July received the baptism of fire.
Death for the homeland
The women immediately found themselves in a hot spot. In two days, they repelled 14 enemy attacks. Now it became clear that the study was not in vain. The women confidently wielded a rifle and bayonet, a machine gun and a grenade. There were many cases when they stopped male soldiers who fled.
From the report of Colonel Zakrzhevsky: “Bochkareva's detachment behaved heroically in battle, all the time in the front line, serving on a par with the soldiers. With its work, the "death battalion" set an example of courage, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these women-heroes deserves the title of a soldier of the Russian revolutionary army. " The resilience of the women's unit was also noted by Lieutenant General Anton Denikin, at that time the commander of the front. Bochkareva herself more than once went into bayonet attacks, was wounded, after which she was sent to a hospital in Petrograd. The fact that women did not sit in the rear is evidenced by the figures: out of 170 women who directly participated in the battles, 30 were killed, 70 were wounded.
End of the Death Battalion
Soon, due to serious losses, the army command banned the sending of women to the front line. It was decided to use them only in auxiliary units: in security, communications, medicine. But women aspired to the army precisely in order to fight, and not to carry out guard and transport service. In the circumstances, many wanted to leave the army.
Alexander Kerensky instructed Bochkareva to form and lead a women's battalion.
And then the October Revolution arrived in time, followed by mass desertion and the collapse of the front. The "death battalion" that no one needed was disbanded. It is not known how the fate of most of his brave fighters developed.
Bochkareva herself in 1919 went to Siberia to Admiral Kolchak, since she took a dislike to the Bolsheviks after they concluded the shameful Brest Peace. Kolchak invited Maria to create a female military sanitary detachment. She enthusiastically set to work, but did not have time to finish it: the commander, betrayed by the allies, was shot. Maria also did not escape this fate: she was shot on May 16, 1920 in Krasnoyarsk.
And then the commander of the first Russian women's battalion was only 30 years old.
The first
The women's military units were conceived and organized by the Provisional Government with the aim of supporting the desire of many women to fight the enemy on an equal basis with men. They also hoped that the appearance of women at the front would become an example of genuine patriotism for soldiers who were mortally tired of the endless war and massively deserted from the front lines. The whole country learned about the formation of the first women's battalion. Teams like Bochkarevskaya began to be created in Kiev, Smolensk, Simbirsk, Irkutsk, Odessa and other cities of Russia. There were naval, cavalry, and female guard teams.
Magazine: All the riddles of the world №2. Author: Konstantin Rishes