World history is full of examples when women took up arms and performed feats. There were representatives of the beautiful half of the human race, whom the tongue would not turn to call the "weaker sex", women - professional warriors, on a par with men, carrying military service and fighting enemies. The Greeks called them Amazons. In Russia, such warrior maidens were called Polyanitsa.
Even the ancient Greeks at one time composed legends about women warriors, or Amazons. They allegedly lived somewhere in the northeast of Asia Minor, on the southern coast of the Black Sea. The Amazons lived separately from the men, they were brave in battles, the men who were captured, lived with them and killed. Born boys were maimed or turned into slaves. Girls were taught horseback riding and weapons.
The Greek historian Herodotus wrote in detail about the Amazons. He reported that once in a battle the Amazons were captured by the Greeks in Asia Minor. On the way to Greece, the Amazons rebelled, killed the guards, but it turned out that they did not know how to control ships. In the end, three rebel ships washed up the coast of Meotida (Sea of Azov).
The Amazons found free land on the left bank of the Tanais (Don) and began to live there. On the other, the right bank, the Scythians lived. Once the Scythians fought with unfamiliar warriors who were attacking their lands. When it was found out from the killed opponents that these were young girls, the Scythians began to visit them, and then live with them. From the marriages of Amazons and Scythian youths, the Sauromats originated. This is the story of Herodotus.
You can not trust what the ancient historian said. But modern archaeologists, during excavations in places where, according to Herodotus, the Savromats lived, find female burials, in which, like in men, weapons are located. It turned out that the Scythians also had female warriors.
Women with weapons are also known among the nomads of the Middle Ages. In Russian folk tales, there is also an image of a warrior woman - a meadow. In the epics, the glades, in their prowess and ability to wield weapons, are not much inferior to the male heroes. And sometimes they surpass them.
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The name "Polyanitsa" comes from the word "Pole". This was the name of the custom, which consisted in the following: a warrior seeking honor and glory went out into the open field alone and looked for a "combatant" there to match. In the event of a victory, they did not take prisoners, trophies, too, and the heads of the opponents, displayed on display, were confirmation of the victory. This is how the northern Amazon looks in epics:
Daring Polyanitsa rides, Removing the great clearing, The horse under her is how strong the mountain is, Polyanitsa on horseback is like a haystack.
She throws a damask club
Yes, under the cloud, under the walker, He picks up the club with one hand, As if playing with a swan feather.
Both Alyosha Popovich and Dobrynya Nikitich were careful not to get involved with such a warlike lady. The latter, however, managed to marry one of the fields. It was Nastasya Mikulishna - the daughter of the hero-plowman Mikula Selyaninovich.
Nastasya was so strong and powerful that she easily defeated Dobrynya Nikitich in single combat. Their fight proceeded in a very peculiar way. Valiant Dobrynya decided to "fight" in an open field with a clearing in his own way. He drove up to her from behind and hit her twice on the head with a club. But Mikulishna did not look at the insolent person and did not even feel the blow.
Dobrynya hit Nastasya even harder. The hero looked at him and said: “I thought the mosquitoes bite. But the Russian heroes are clicking! She grabbed Dobrynya by the curls and put it in a sack. But her kind horse did not want to carry the two heroes.
Then Mikulishna took Dobrynya out of the bag and said: “If an old hero, I will cut off his head, if a young hero, I will take it full. If he comes into love with me, I will marry, but if I do not fall in love, I will put it in the palm of my hand, I will squeeze the other, I will make a hero into an oat pancake.
But she liked Dobrynya, and she said to him: "As soon as you take me, Dobrynya, into marriage, if you make a great commandment with me, I will let you go." Dobrynya, naturally, immediately agreed to marry.
The wife of the hero Danube Ivanovich was another meadow named Nastasya. First, the Danube fought with the warlike maiden and defeated her. But the married life of the heroic couple ended tragically. At the wedding feast, Danube boasted of his bravery, and Nastasya - accuracy in archery. Danube took this as a challenge and made a test. Nastasya shot three times a silver ring lying on the head of the Danube.
Danube was unable to recognize the superiority of his wife and ordered her to repeat the dangerous test in the opposite version: the ring is on Nastasya's head, and Danube is shooting. The arrow of the Danube hit Nastasya, and she died. In the mountain, Danube threw himself on his sword and died next to his wife. It is from his blood that the Danube River begins.
In later times, a legend appeared about the boyar Stavr Godinovich and his wife Vasilisa Mikulishna (also the daughter of Mikula Selyaninovich). And although the boyar's wife is not called Polyanitsa, she defeats the warriors of Prince Vladimir in archery and wrestling. What is not a hero.
In a historical era, which we can judge not by folk legends, but by written documents, in Western Europe, the traditions of female warriors have gradually disappeared. However, among the Slavs in general and in Russia in particular, they survived the centuries. In the campaigns of Prince Svyatoslav, according to Leo the Deacon and John Skilitsa, first Russian and then Bulgarian women warriors took part. Enemies learned about their existence only after the battles, when, looting, they removed armor and clothes from the dead.
Russian chronicles tell about women who took part in the defense of cities besieged by the Tatar-Mongols, crusaders, Lithuanians and Poles. Moreover, they participated, not only bringing arrows or pouring boiling water and tar on the enemies from the walls, but also with weapons in their hands. It is known that in 1641, during the famous "Azov sitting" in the battles with the Turks, in addition to male warriors, Cossack riders also participated. They perfectly shot from a bow and inflicted significant damage on the Turks.
However, the Cossacks were no stranger to fighting seriously. The Russian military historian Vasily Potto wrote about the Cossack women in the following way: "A woman, an eternal worker in peacetime, in moments of danger, was a full-fledged fighter among the Cossacks, like her father, husband, son or brother."
Young Cossacks were taught to ride a horse and fight. The Cossack girl was raised as a future wife, mother, homemaker, who knew any job, including a man's. Until the age of 13, they even played some games with boys, learning some military wisdom, for example, riding a horse. The girl could no longer just ride a horse, but also deftly wield a lasso, a bow and a samopal. To survive in the conditions of the Caucasian War, one had to be able to defend himself.
For more than two centuries, the Cossacks have been celebrating December 4 (November 21, old style) Day of the Cossack Mother, which falls on the feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos. The Empress Catherine the Great established a "woman's holiday" in honor of the victory in the battle for the village of Naurskaya. In 1774 the village was surrounded by a detachment of nine thousand Tatars and Turks. Combat Cossacks were on the march, and a hundred and fifty women came out onto the shaft to repel the onslaught.
How desperately they fought, the commandant of Mozdok described: “Some with guns, and others with scythes … the women turned out to be those who fired up to twenty charges from their rifles, and one of them, being with a scythe, was at the enemy, when he was rushing to the shaft towards slingshot, cut off his head and took possession of his gun.
The women were dragging cannons and hitting with buckshot. They boiled tar and poured it on the heads of the invaders. According to legends, even a vat of "boiling pork soup" was used. Catherine II awarded the brave Cossacks with medals and established a holiday in their glory.
Victor Sergeev