Almost everyone knows the expression “Potemkin villages”. It was born at a time when the annexation of Crimea was celebrated in the Russian Empire, and the Empress deigned to make a trip to the Black Sea province conquered from the Turks. On the way of the royal departure, His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky built villages, whose houses consisted of three decorative walls or even one facade. It is interesting that in the Crimea, by order of His Serene Highness, at the same time a company of … Amazons was hastily formed!
Resurrecting antiquity
In the early spring of 1787, Catherine II asked Grigory Potemkin what kind of peoples inhabit the Crimean peninsula. It turned out that among other new subjects of the Russian crown, there are also Greeks. Moreover, among the units of the Russian army that occupied the Crimea, there is a Balaklava regiment, formed from the Greeks. Here the empress either joked, or, sincerely not knowing, asked: if the Greeks are the descendants of ancient Greece, then maybe there are warrior women in Greece now, the Amazons of our time? And she dreamed - if only to see them!
- Greece has everything! - Probably, the Serene Highness confirmed. “And in Crimea, dear Katenka will be greeted by a whole company of real Amazons.
Mother Empress, a beloved and loving woman … Yes, if she only wished, Prince Potemkin would have built a company of not Amazons - angels with snow-white wings with the holy Apostle instead of the sergeant major. And in March 1787, the commander of the Greek Balaklava regiment, Prime Major Konstantin Chaponi, received from Petersburg a personal written order from Potemkin - to form a company of Amazons in the regiment for the arrival of the empress.
The officer was stunned as if he were actually ordered to form a company of angels. But an order is an order. They came up with: they recruited a hundred young wives, daughters and sisters of officers and soldiers of the Greek regiment. Firstly, almost all are Greek. Secondly, due to the everyday circumstances of life, such women had at least a minimal idea of the military system, bearing and weapons. For two months, the Amazonian company was drilled on the regimental parade ground, trained in rifle techniques and shooting. By the way, about weapons … Amazons from the myths of Ancient Greece were riders, and they fought with light darts and bows and arrows. They did not make archers and riders from Greek women. It would be completely anecdotal. But even the heavy infantry fusées - guns of the 18th century - were too much for fragile women in the literal sense of the word. They were armed with relatively light short cavalry rifles and somehow taught them to load and shoot. What if the queen wants to see the military teaching of the Crimean Amazons? The regimental tailors invented and sewed a completely theatrical uniform for the ladies' company: bright crimson skirts, green jackets, and white turbans with gilded sequins and ostrich feathers on their heads. In "plumage" and the color of their uniforms, the women looked like parrots, and although in those days all the regiments wore bright uniforms, the Amazon company did not look like a formidable host. The women looked like parrots in their plumage and color of their uniforms, and although in those days all the regiments wore bright uniforms, the Amazon company did not look like a formidable host. In "plumage" and the color of their uniforms, the women looked like parrots, and although in those days all the regiments wore bright uniforms, the Amazon company did not look like a formidable host.
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A natural question arose: who will be. commander of an operetta army? Since the practical work on the formation and training of this unit was carried out by Captain Sarandov, his 19-year-old wife Elena became the "company" of the Amazons.
On May 21, 1878, a hundred Amazons were solemnly built near the decorated arch near the village of Kadykovka near Balaklava. Each girl was given three cartridges for a gun with a secret, however, the hope that it would not come to firing.
A hundred in the ranks
The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Joseph II, who then accompanied Catherine the Great, was slightly ahead of the royal carriage. Very surprised by such an honor guard, he nevertheless accepted Elena Ivanovna's report and, feeling emotional, without getting off the saddle, kissed her hard on the lips, after which he presented her with a gold ducat. And then the royal carriage drove up … Catherine did not get out of her, allowed young Elena to her hand, congratulated her on the rank of captain, took off the ring with diamonds from her finger and presented it as a keepsake. A little later, it was estimated at 1,800 rubles in gold - an astronomical amount for the Crimea at that time.
And what about the Amazons? Catherine burst out laughing, appreciating Potemkin's resourcefulness. She did not conduct either a drill or firing exercises, reasonably fearing that the "warrior" would accidentally shoot her here … And she ordered to immediately reward the entire company with 10 thousand rubles. At that time - a fortune. Each of the provincial women instantly turned into a rich lady.
First women's division
Laughter with laughter, and in the Balaklava infantry regiment in 1787, the first female unit in the history of the Russian army was actually created. This is a historical fact! The women were, in fact, drafted into the army, for two months they passed the "course of a young soldier": they were engaged in drill and fire training, studied weapons, and prepared for exercises. And this is 130 years before the appearance of women's battalions in the army of the Kerensky government.
And 19-year-old Elena Ivanovna Sarandova is probably the first woman in the history of the Russian army to be promoted to captain. By personal order of the Empress. However, one must assume that Sarandova immediately retired - the mores of that era did not allow a cell of society to exist in the form of a marriage of two captains. Yes, and the piled up wealth demanded the hands of a wife and mistress, and not the commander of a company of Amazons.
Easy money is not a reward
Elena Ivanovna bought a house with the Tsar's money and started a farm. She gave birth to three children: a son and two daughters. Widowed, the retired captain married the merchant Gabriel Shydlovsky. Crimea has its own "bureaucratic tradition": each new governor of Taurida invariably visited a lady who spoke to Catherine N personally and kissed the emperor of the Roman Empire. Catherine's captain has become a kind of living relic in Crimea. She was surrounded by the respect and care of her children and grandchildren.
No one would have thought that in September 1848 a beggar old woman would write to Prince Mikhail Vorontsov and ask for help. Ex-captain Shidlovskaya went bankrupt, her once rich estate was auctioned off. He turned to Nicholas I and received the highest order to send the widow of Captain Oarandov 300 rubles in silver.
The emperor's pensioner died in September 1849. And Catherine's precious ring disappeared without a trace. The descendants of Shidlovskaya amicably convinced historians that he had been stolen. The question, by whom and when, remained unanswered.
Alexander Smirnov