The future heroine of the Russian-American blockbuster "Battalion", which our modern "patriots" watch with aspiration, Maria Bochkareva was born in 1889 into a 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. After some time, Bochkareva 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 shop as a diversion, although in fact Buk, with the participation of his mistress, organized a gang of Honghuz and engaged in the usual robbery on the highway. Soon the police were 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 no one left to rob.Maria Bochkareva. 1917
Bochkareva’s betrothed, from such grief and the inability to do what he loved, namely, robbery, as usual in Rus', began to drink and began to practice beating his mistress. At this time the First broke out World War, 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 melancholy. Only registration as a volunteer in the army allowed Maria 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 bandages, sent a telegram to the Tsar asking him to give her the opportunity to shoot the Germans to her heart’s content. The telegram reached the addressee, and an unexpected positive response came from the king. This is how the mistress of a Siberian robber ended up at the front.
At first, the woman in uniform caused ridicule and harassment from her colleagues, but her courage in battle brought her universal respect, the St. George Cross and three medals. In those years, the nickname “Yashka” stuck to her, in memory of her unlucky life partner. After two wounds and countless battles, Bochkareva was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer. 
Volunteers at the hairdresser
M.V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a propaganda trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, took her with him to Petrograd to campaign for “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, approached her with a proposal to organize a “women’s death battalion.” Both Kerensky’s wife and St. Petersburg institutes, totaling up to 2000 girls, were involved in this pseudo-patriotic project. In the unusual military unit, arbitrariness reigned, to which Bochkareva was accustomed to in the active army: subordinates complained to the authorities that Bochkareva “beats people’s faces, like a real sergeant of the old regime.” Not many could withstand such treatment: for short term 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 the new military unit with a white banner with the inscription “The first female 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 (Kyiv, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but in connection with historical development events, the creation of these women's shock units was never completed.
Strict discipline was established in the women's battalions: waking up at five in the morning, studying until ten in the evening and simple soldier's food. Women had their heads shaved. Black shoulder straps with a red stripe and an emblem in the form of a skull and two crossed bones symbolized “the unwillingness to live if Russia perishes.” 
Bochkarev at the head of the death unit
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 still-forming battalion. Some women attempted to form a soldiers’ committee and sharply criticized Bochkareva’s brutal management methods. There was a split in the battalion. M. Bochkareva was summoned alternately to the district commander, General Polovtsev and Kerensky. Both conversations took place heatedly, but Bochkareva stood her ground: she would not have any committees!
She reorganized her battalion. Approximately 300 women remained in it, and it became the 1st Petrograd Shock Battalion. And from the remaining women who disagreed with Bochkareva’s command methods, the 2nd Moscow Shock Battalion was formed. 
Bochkareva's fighting friends
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 “Bochkareva’s detachment behaved heroically in battle,” it became clear that female 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 subsequently to lieutenant. Such heavy losses volunteers also had other consequences for 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 the already created units 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 to be dismissed from the “death units.” 
Classes with new recruits. In the background is a crowd of civilian girls seeking to protect the Provisional Government
The Second Moscow Battalion, which left Bochkareva’s command, was destined to be among the last defenders of the Provisional Government during the days of the October Revolution. Only this one military unit Kerensky managed to inspect 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 tears. Immediately after the capture of the Winter Palace, the most sensational stories about the terrible fate of the women's battalion that defended the palace spread in the anti-Bolshevik press. It was said that some female soldiers were thrown out of windows onto the pavement, almost all the rest were raped, and many committed suicide, not being able to survive all these horrors. 
Bochkareva in the USA with her American friend.
The City Duma 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 were not subjected to the terrible insults that we heard and read about.” After the capture of Zimny, the women were first sent to the Pavlovsk barracks, where some of them were indeed 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 from the windows of the Winter Palace, that three were raped, but 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 “ I was disappointed in my ideals." 
The women of the 2nd Moscow are precisely those who were completely “raped” by the journalists of Petrograd newspapers in their wild fantasies. Shortly before the storming of the Winter Palace. Palace Square. October 1917
The slanderers were 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 violence and outrages were committed by sailors and Red Guards during the disarmament of the women’s battalion, we, the undersigned,” said the letter from the soldiers of the former women’s battalion, “ We consider it our civic duty to declare that nothing of the sort happened, that it was 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 units 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 Russia’s best “friends” - the Americans - to ask for help to fight the Bolsheviks. We are seeing approximately the same thing today, when various Parubiyas and Semenchenkos go to the same America to ask for money for the war with Donbass and Russia. Then, in 1919, help to Bochkareva, like today’s emissaries of the Kyiv junta, was promised by American senators. Upon returning to Russia on November 10, 1919, Bochkareva met with Admiral Kolchak. On his instructions, 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.
The Women's Death Battalion in the First World War (photos are in the article) arose at the behest of the Provisional Government. One of the main initiators of its creation was M. Bochkareva. The Women's Death Battalion in World War I was created to raise the morale of male soldiers who refused to go to the front.
Maria Bochkareva
Since 1914, she was at the front with the rank of senior non-commissioned officer, having received the Highest permission to do so. Thanks to her heroism, by 1917 Maria Bochkareva had become quite famous. Rodzianko, who arrived on the Western Front in April, achieved a personal meeting with her, and then took her with him to Petrograd to campaign for the fight “to the bitter end” among the garrison troops and in front of the delegates of the Congress of the Petrograd Soviet. In her speech, Bochkareva put forward a proposal to form a women's death battalion. During the war, she said, such a formation was extremely necessary. After this, she was invited to speak at a meeting of the Provisional Government.
Prerequisites for the formation of a detachment
During the First World War, women themselves of different ages- high school students, student students and representatives of other strata of society - went voluntarily to the front. In the "Bulletin of the Red Cross" in 1915 a story appeared about 12 girls who fought in the Carpathians. They were 14-16 years old. In the very first battles, two high school students died and 4 were wounded. The soldiers treated the girls like fathers. They got them uniforms, taught them how to shoot, and then signed them up. male names like privates. What made women who were good-looking, young, rich or noble plunge into military everyday life? Documents and memories point to many reasons. The main one, undoubtedly, was the patriotic impulse. It embraced the entire Russian society. It was the sense of patriotism and duty that forced many women to change their elegant outfits to military uniforms or the clothes of sisters of mercy. Family circumstances were also important. Some women went to the front for their husbands, others, having learned about their deaths, joined the army out of a sense of revenge.
A special role belonged to the developing movement for equal rights with men. The revolutionary year of 1917 gave women many opportunities. They received voting and other rights. All this contributed to the emergence of soldier detachments that consisted entirely of women. In the spring and summer of 1917, units began to form throughout the country. Already from the name itself it was clear what the women's death battalion was. In the First World War, girls were ready to give their lives for their Motherland. About 2,000 girls responded to Bochkareva’s call. However, only 300 of them were selected for the women's death battalion. In the First World War, the “shock girls” showed what Russian girls were capable of. With their heroism they infected all the soldiers who participated in the battles.
Women's Death Battalion: history of creation
The battalion was formed in a fairly short time. In 1917, on June 21, a solemn ceremony was held at St. Isaac's Cathedral on the square. On it, the new military formation received a white banner. On June 29, the Regulations were approved. It established the procedure for the formation of military formations of female volunteers. Representatives from different walks of life enrolled in the ranks of the “shock girls”. For example, Bochkareva’s adjutant was the 25-year-old general’s daughter Maria Skrydlova. She had an excellent education and knew five languages.
The Women's Death Battalion in the First World War consisted of women serving in front-line units and ordinary citizens. Among the latter were noblewomen, workers, teachers, and student students. Simple peasant women, servants, girls from famous noble families, soldiers, Cossack women - they and many others went to serve in the women's death battalion. The history of the creation of the Bochkareva unit began in difficult times. However, this became the impetus for the unification of girls into soldier detachments in other cities. Mostly Russian women joined the units. However, one could also meet representatives of other nationalities. Thus, according to documents, Estonians, Latvians, and Jews also went to serve in the women’s death battalion.
The history of the creation of units testifies to the high patriotism of the fairer sex. Units began to be formed in Kyiv, Smolensk, Kharkov, Mariupol, Baku, Irkutsk, Odessa, Poltava, Vyatka and other cities. According to sources, a lot of girls immediately signed up for the first women's death battalion. In the First World War, military formations ranged from 250 to 1,500 people. In October 1917, the following were formed: the Naval Command, the Minsk Guard Squad, the Petrograd Cavalry Regiment, as well as the First Petrograd, Second Moscow, and Third Kuban Women's Death Battalions. Only the last three units took part in the First World War (history shows this). However, due to the intensifying processes of destruction Russian Empire the formation of the units was never completed.
Public attitude
Russian historian Solntseva wrote that the Soviets and the mass of soldiers perceived the women’s death battalion quite negatively. In the World War, however, the role of the detachment was quite significant. However, many front-line soldiers spoke very unflatteringly about the girls. At the beginning of July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded that all battalions be disbanded. It was said that these units were “unfit for service.” In addition, the Petrograd Soviet regarded the formation of these detachments as a “hidden bourgeois maneuver”, as a desire to bring the struggle to victory.
Women's Death Battalion in the First World War: photos, activities
Bochkareva’s unit arrived in the active army on June 27, 1917. The number of the detachment was 200 people. The women's death battalion entered the rear units of the First Siberian Corps of the 10th Army on the Western Front. An offensive was being prepared for July 9th. On the 7th, the infantry regiment, which included the women's death battalion, received an order. He was to take a position at Crevo. On the right flank of the regiment there was a battalion of shock troops. They were the first to enter the battle, since the enemy, who knew about the plans of the Russian army, launched a preemptive strike and entered the location of our troops.
Over the course of three days, 14 enemy attacks were repelled. Several times during this time the battalion launched counterattacks. As a result, German soldiers were driven out of the positions they had occupied the day before. In his report, Colonel Zakrzhevsky wrote that the women's death battalion in the First World War behaved heroically, being constantly on the front line. The girls served in the same way as the soldiers, on an equal basis with them. When the Germans attacked, they all rushed into a counterattack, went on reconnaissance missions, and brought in cartridges. The Women's Death Battalion in the First World War was an example of bravery, calm and courage. Each of these heroine girls is worthy of the highest rank of Soldier of the Russian Revolutionary Army. As Bochkareva herself testified, out of 170 shock workers who took part in the battles, 30 people were killed and about 70 were wounded. She herself was wounded five times. After the battle, Bochkareva was in the hospital for a month and a half. For her participation in battles and her heroism, she was awarded the rank of second lieutenant.
Consequences of losses
Due to the large number of girls killed and wounded in battles, General Kornilov signed an order prohibiting the formation of new death battalions to participate in battles. The existing units were assigned only an auxiliary function. In particular, they were instructed to provide security, communications, and act as sanitary groups. As a result, many volunteer girls who wanted to fight for their homeland with weapons in their hands submitted written statements that contained a request to be dismissed from the death battalion.
Discipline
She was quite tough. The Women's Death Battalion in the First World War showed not only an example of courage and patriotism. The main principles were proclaimed:
Positive points
The Women's Death Battalion in the First World War not only took part in battles. "Udarnitsy" got the opportunity to master male professions. For example, Princess Shakhovskaya is the world's first female pilot. In Germany in 1912 she was issued a pilot's license. There, at the Johannisthal airfield, she worked for some time as an instructor. At the beginning of the war, Shakhovskaya petitioned to be sent to the front as a military pilot. The Emperor granted the request, and in November 1914, the princess was enlisted with the rank of ensign in the First Aviation Detachment.
One more a shining example is Elena Samsonova. She was the daughter of a military engineer and graduated from high school and courses in Peretburg with a gold medal. Samsonova worked as a nurse in a Warsaw hospital. After that, she was enlisted as a driver in the 9th Army, which was located on the Southwestern Front. However, she did not serve there long - about four months, and then was sent to Moscow. Before the war, Samsonova received a pilot's diploma. In 1917, she was sent to the 26th aviation detachment.
Security of the Provisional Government
One of the “shock battalions” (the First Petrograd, commanded by Staff Captain Loskov), together with cadets and other units in October 1917, took part in ensuring the defense of the Winter Palace. On October 25, the detachment, which was stationed at Levashovo station, was supposed to head to the Romanian front. But the day before, Loskov received an order to send a unit “to the parade” in Petrograd. In fact, it was supposed to provide protection
Loskov learned about the real task and did not want to drag his subordinates into political disagreements. He withdrew the battalion back to Levashovo, except for the 2nd company of 137 people. With the help of two shock platoons, the headquarters of the Petrograd district tried to carry out the routing of Liteiny, Dvortsovoy and Dvortsovoy, but this task was thwarted by the Sovietized sailors. The remaining company of shockwomen positioned themselves to the right of the main gate on the first floor of the palace. During the night assault, she surrendered and was disarmed. The girls were taken to the barracks first by Pavlovsky, and then, according to some reports, a number of shockwomen were “mistreated.” Subsequently, a special commission of the Petrograd Duma found that four girls had been raped (although, probably, few were even ready to admit it), and one had committed suicide. On October 26, the company was sent back to Levashovo.
Elimination of units
After graduation October revolution the new Soviet government set a course for concluding peace, as well as withdrawing the country from the war. In addition, part of the forces was aimed at eliminating the Imperial Army. As a result, all “shock units” were disbanded. The battalions were disbanded on November 30, 1917 by order of the Military Council of the former Ministry. Although shortly before this event, it was ordered to promote all participants of volunteer units to officers for military merits. Nevertheless, a large number of female shock workers remained in the positions until January 1918 and longer.
Some women moved to the Don. There they took an active part in the fight against the Bolsheviks in the ranks of the Last of the remaining units was the Third Kuban Death Battalion. He was stationed in Yekaterinodar. This strike unit was disbanded only on February 26, 1918. The reason was the refusal of the headquarters of the Caucasian district to provide further supplies to the detachment.
and shape
Women who served in Bochkareva's battalion wore the "Adam's Head" symbol on their chevrons. They, like other soldiers, underwent a medical examination. Like men, girls cut their hair almost bald. During the fighting, women's participation and asceticism acquired a mass character for the first time in history. There were more than 25 thousand volunteer girls in the Russian army at the front. A sense of patriotism and duty to the Fatherland led many of them to serve. Being in the army changed their worldview.
Finally
It must be said that when creating the first women's battalion, Kerensky played a special role. He was the first to support this idea. Kerensky received a huge number of petitions and telegrams from women who sought to join the ranks of the unit. He also received minutes of meetings and various memos. All these papers reflected women’s concerns about the future of the country, as well as the desire to protect the Motherland and preserve the freedom of the people. They believed that remaining inactive was tantamount to disgrace. Women strove to join the army, guided solely by their love for the Motherland and the desire to raise the morale of the soldiers. The Main Directorate of the General Staff established a special commission on labor service. At the same time, the headquarters of the military districts began to work to attract female volunteers into the army. However, the desire of women was so great that a wave of the creation of military organizations spontaneously spread across the country.
In different historical eras and in different parts light, when, due to constant wars, the ranks of men were greatly thinned, women created their own combat units. In Russia, during the First World War, so-called women's death battalions also appeared. The first such unit was headed by Maria Bochkareva, one of the most unlucky and extraordinary women of that difficult time.
How was the life of the future heroine?
Maria Leontievna Frolkova was born in 1889 in the Novgorod region into a very poor peasant family. When Marusya was six years old, the family moved to Tomsk in search of a better life, since the government promised considerable benefits to immigrants to Siberia. But hopes were not justified. At the age of 8, the girl was given “to the people.” Marusya worked from morning to night, enduring constant hunger and beatings.
In her early youth, Maria met Lieutenant Vasily Lazov. In an effort to escape from the hopeless situation surrounding her, the girl fled with him from her parents' house. However, the lieutenant disgraced her and abandoned her. After returning home, Maria was beaten so severely by her father that she suffered a concussion. Then, at the age of 15, Maria was married to Japanese war veteran Afanasy Bochkarev. The marriage was unsuccessful: the husband drank heavily and beat his young wife. Maria tried to escape from him and somehow get settled in life, but her husband found her, brought her home and everything continued as before. The girl repeatedly tried to take her own life. The last time she was saved by the robber and gambler Yankel Buk, who was part of the international gang of Honghuz. He did not let her drink a glass of vinegar. Maria became his partner.
Some time later, Yankel Buk was caught and exiled. Bochkareva followed him into exile. But there he began to drink and engage in assault. There is evidence that one day Buk, suspecting his girlfriend of treason, tried to hang her. Maria realized that she had fallen into another trap, and her active nature began to look for a way out. She went to the police station, where she spoke about the many unsolved crimes of her partner. However, this act only worsened her situation.
When the First World War began, Bochkareva turned to the commander of the Tomsk battalion with a request to enlist her as a soldier. The commander laughed it off and advised her to turn to the emperor himself. However, Maria’s existence was so terrible that she really decided to take this step: she found a person who helped her compose and send a telegram to Nicholas II, in which she asked to enlist her in the active army. Apparently, the telegram was written by a professional, because the tsar agreed to such a violation of army discipline.
Life among soldiers and participation in battles
When Maria Bochkareva went to the front, her fellow soldiers perceived her ironically. Her military nickname was “Yashka”, after her second husband. Maria recalled that she spent the first night in the barracks handing out blows to her comrades. She tried to visit not a soldier’s bathhouse, but a city one, where they threw something heavy at her from the threshold, mistaking her for a man. Later, Maria began to wash with her squad, occupying the far corner, turning her back and threatening to scald if harassed. Soon the soldiers got used to her and stopped mocking her, recognizing her as “one of their own”; sometimes they even took her with them to the brothel as a joke.
After all the ordeals, Maria had nothing to lose, but she got a chance to advance and improve her social status. She showed considerable courage in battles and pulled fifty wounded from under fire. She herself was wounded four times. Returning from the hospital, she received the most cordial welcome in the unit, probably for the first time in her life being in a friendly environment. She was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer and awarded the St. George Cross and three medals.
First Women's Death Battalion
In 1917, Duma deputy Mikhail Rodzianko proposed the idea of creating a women's military brigade. The front was falling apart, cases of flight from the battlefield and desertion were widespread. Rodzianko hoped that the example of fearless patriotic women would inspire the soldiers and unite the Russian army.
Maria Bochkareva became the commander of the women's death battalion. More than 2,000 women responded to her call, wanting to defend the country with arms in hand. Many of them were from among the romantic St. Petersburg institutes, carried away by patriotic ideas and having absolutely no idea about real military life, but willingly posing in soldier’s image for photographers. Bochkareva, seeing this, immediately demanded that her subordinates strictly adhere to her requirements: unquestioning obedience, no jewelry and a haircut. There were also complaints about Maria’s heavy hand, which could, in the best sergeant-major traditions, slap people in the face. Those dissatisfied with such orders quickly dropped out, and only 300 girls remained in the battalion. of various origins: from those born in peasant families to noblewomen. Maria Skrydlova, the daughter of a famous admiral, became Bochkareva’s adjutant. National composition was different: Russians, Latvians, Estonians, Jews and even one Englishwoman.
The women's battalion was escorted to the front by about 25 thousand men from the St. Petersburg garrison, who themselves were in no hurry to expose their foreheads to a bullet. Alexander Kerensky personally presented the detachment with a banner on which was written: “The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva.” Their emblem was a skull and crossbones: not a pirate sign, but a symbol of Calvary and the atonement for the sins of mankind.
How women warriors were perceived
At the front, the girls had to fight off the soldiers: many perceived the female recruits exclusively as legal prostitutes. Prostitutes accompanying the army often dressed in something like a military uniform, so the girls’ ammunition did not stop anyone. Their military position was besieged by hundreds of fellow soldiers who had no doubt that an official brothel had arrived.
But that was before the first battles. Bochkareva’s detachment arrived at Smorgon and on July 8, 1914, entered into battle for the first time. Over three days, the women's death battalion repelled 14 German attacks. Several times the girls went on counterattacks, entered into hand-to-hand combat and knocked out German units from their positions. Commander Anton Denikin was impressed by the women's heroism.
Rodzianko’s calculations did not come true: the male combat units continued to take cover in the trenches while the girls rose to attack. The battalion lost 30 soldiers, about 70 were wounded. Bochkareva herself was wounded for the fifth time and spent a month and a half in the hospital. She was promoted to second lieutenant, and the battalion moved to the rear. After the October Revolution, on Bochkareva’s initiative, her detachment was disbanded.
Alternative battalion of college girls
Those girls who were weeded out by Bochkareva created the Petrograd Women's Death Battalion. Here you were allowed to use cosmetics, wear elegant underwear and do beautiful hairstyles. The composition was fundamentally different: in addition to the romantic graduates of the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens, the battalion was joined by adventurers of various kinds, including prostitutes who decided to change their field of activity. This second detachment, formed by the Women's Patriotic Union, was supposed to defend the Winter Palace in Petrograd. However, when Zimny was captured by the revolutionaries, this detachment did not offer resistance: the girls were disarmed and sent to the barracks of the Pavlovsky regiment. The attitude towards them was exactly the same as initially towards the front-line girls. They were perceived exclusively as girls of easy virtue, treated without any respect, raped, and soon the Petrograd Women's Battalion was disbanded.
Refusal to cooperate with the Bolsheviks in favor of the White Guards
After the October Revolution, Lenin and Trotsky considered Maria Bochkareva a suitable candidate for organizing the Soviet women's movement. However, Maria refused, citing her reluctance to further take part in battles. She went over to the side of the White movement, but did not really participate in the hostilities and made an attempt to go to her family in Tomsk. On the way, Bochkareva was captured by the Bolsheviks, from whom she managed to escape in the costume of a nurse. Having reached Vladivostok, the Russian Amazon left for San Francisco. In America, she was supported by one of the leaders of the suffragette movement, the wealthy Florence Harriman. She organized Maria a tour throughout the country giving lectures. In 1918, Bochkareva was received by President Woodrow Wilson, whom she asked for help in the fight against the Bolsheviks. It is known that the head of the White House shed tears after the Russian Amazon told him about the vicissitudes of her difficult fate.
Then Mary arrived in London and had the honor of talking with King George. The latter promised her financial and military support. She returned to her homeland with the English military corps. From Arkhangelsk she went to the White Guard capital Omsk, joining the army of Alexander Kolchak, who invited her to form a women's detachment. This attempt was unsuccessful. By the way, Kolchak, in Maria’s opinion, was too indecisive, as a result of which the Bolsheviks everywhere went on the offensive.
Mysteries of extraordinary fate
There are different versions about Maria's arrest. According to one of them, she voluntarily came to the Cheka and surrendered her weapons. In any case, on January 7, 1920, she was arrested. The investigative process lasted several months, the court hesitated in making a decision. It is believed that on May 16, 1921, Bochkareva was shot in Krasnoyarsk according to the resolution of security officers Ivan Pavlunovsky and Isaac Shimanovsky. However, it is known that Mary had influential defenders and there was an active struggle for her release. Her biographer S.V. Drokov believes that the order to execute remained only on paper and was not carried out, and in fact this extraordinary woman was rescued by an American journalist originally from Odessa, Isaac Levin. This version says that Maria subsequently met one of her former fellow soldiers, a widower with children, and married him.
There are so many legends about this amazing woman that it is impossible to say one hundred percent whether it is true or fiction. But it is reliably known that an ordinary peasant woman, who remained illiterate for almost her entire adult life, was called by King George V during a personal meeting “the Russian Joan of Arc.” Fate destined her to become the first female officer in Russian army. The whole truth about the women's death battalion is in our article.
Youth, childhood, love
The creator of the women's death battalion, Maria Bochkareva, was born in a small village in the Novgorod province into an ordinary working-class family. In addition to her, her parents had two more children. They lived quite poorly and, in order to improve their deplorable situation, decided to move to Siberia, where at that time the government provided assistance to newcomers. But hopes were not justified, so it was decided to marry Maria to a man whom she did not love, and who was also a drunkard. She got her famous surname from him.
After a short period of time, Maria Bochkareva (the women's death battalion was her idea) breaks up with her husband and begins a free life. It was at that time that she was lucky enough to meet her first and only love. Unfortunately, she had no luck with the stronger sex: while the first was a constant drinker, the second was a criminal and member of the Honghuz gang, which included people from Manchuria and China. His name was Yankel Buk. When he was arrested and redirected to Yakutsk, Bochkareva followed him, as the wives of the Decembrists did.
Sad outcome of the relationship
But the desperate Yakov could not be corrected, and even while in the settlement, he sold stolen goods, and later took up robberies. In order to prevent her beloved from going to hard labor, Maria had to follow the lead of the local governor, who harassed her. Subsequently, she could not survive her own betrayal, trying to poison herself. This complicated story ended tragically: after learning about what had happened, the man, in the heat of anger, tried to kill the official. He was put on trial and sent to an unknown location, after which contact with his loved one was lost.
To the front by imperial favor
The outbreak of war led to an unprecedented surge of patriotic feelings. A huge number of volunteers went to the front, and Maria Leontievna Bochkareva did the same. The story of her entry into service is quite interesting. Arriving in 1914 to the commander of the reserve battalion, which was located in Tomsk, she was faced with a disregardful attitude and ironic advice to make a similar request to the Emperor. Contrary to his expectations, the woman dared to write a petition. To the surprise of the public, she soon received a positive response signed by Nicholas II.
After an accelerated training course, in February of the following year, Maria Leontyevna Bochkareva found herself at the front as a civilian soldier. Having taken on such a difficult task, she, along with the rest of the soldiers, went into bayonet attacks, helped the wounded escape from fire, and also showed real heroism. She was given the nickname Yashka, which she invented for herself in honor of her lover.
When the company commander died in March 1916, Maria took over his post and led her comrades in an offensive that became devastating. For the courage shown in the offensive, the woman received the St. George Cross, as well as three medals. While at the forefront, she was wounded more than once, but despite this, she was still in service. Only after being seriously wounded in the thigh was she sent to the hospital, where she spent several months.
Creation of women's death battalions
Returning to duty, Bochkareva found her own regiment in complete disintegration. While she was away, the February Revolution happened, and the soldiers endlessly rallied and tried to “fraternize” with the Germans. Maria, who did not want to put up with such a situation, never tired of looking for an opportunity to influence the situation. Very soon a similar opportunity presented itself.
The chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma was sent to the front to carry out propaganda work. Bochkareva, having secured his support, went to Petrograd, where she began to implement her long-standing idea - the opening of military formations, which included women ready to defend the Motherland. In her endeavor, she felt the support of the Minister of War Kerensky, as well as Brusilov, who was the Supreme Commander-in-Chief General. Thus began the history of the women's death battalion.
Battalion composition
In response to the calls of the courageous woman, several thousand Russian women responded, wanting to take up arms in the ranks of the new unit. It is worth noting the fact that most of them were literate girls - graduates of the Bestuzhev courses, and a third had a secondary education. At that time, no unit consisting of men could show such indicators. Among the shockwomen were representatives of all walks of life - from simple peasant women to aristocrats (bearers of famous surnames).
Among the subordinates in the women's death battalion (1917), commander Bochkareva immediately established strict discipline and strict subordination. The rise took place at five in the morning, and until ten in the evening there were constant classes with little rest. Many women who previously lived in fairly wealthy families found it difficult to accept soldier life and the established routine. But this was not their greatest difficulty.
Complaints about the commander
As the sources say, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief soon began to receive complaints regarding arbitrariness, as well as rude treatment on the part of the commander of the women’s death battalion in the First World War. The reports noted facts of beatings. In addition, the appearance within its walls of agitators leading political activity, representatives of all kinds of parties, which was a violation of the rules adopted following the uprising. As a result of a large number of disagreements, 250 shockwomen left the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion and moved to another formation.
Sending to the front
Soon the twenty-first of June 1917 arrived, the day when, in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral, in front of a large audience, the newly created unit was awarded the honor of receiving a battle flag. Needless to say, what emotions was experienced by the hero of the occasion, who stood in a new uniform.
But the holiday was replaced by trench life. The young defenders were faced with realities that they had never even imagined before. They found themselves in the midst of morally corrupt and degrading soldiers. In order to protect them from violence, it was sometimes necessary to post sentries on duty at the barracks. But after the first real battle, where Maria’s battalion took direct part, showing unprecedented courage, the shock troops began to be treated with respect.
Hospital and inspection of new units
The Women's Death Battalion in the First World War took part in operations along with other units and suffered losses. Maria Bochkareva, who received a severe concussion on July 9, was sent to Petrograd for treatment. During the period that she spent at the front, her ideas about the women's patriotic movement found a wide response in the capital. New formations were created, which were staffed by defenders of the Fatherland.
After being discharged from the hospital, by order of Kornilov, Bochkareva was given the task of checking such units. The results of the inspection were extremely negative. None of the battalions were truly combative. However, the atmosphere of turmoil that hovered in Moscow did not allow any tangible results to be achieved in a short time.
Soon the initiator of the creation of women's death battalions is sent to her native unit, but right now her fighting spirit is cooling down a little. She has said more than once that she was disappointed in her subordinates and believes that they should not be sent to the front. Maybe her demands on her subordinates were too high, and what she, a combat officer, could handle without problems was beyond the capabilities of ordinary women.
Features of the deadly part
Due to the fact that all these events were close to the episode with the defense of the Winter Palace (government residence), it is worth understanding in more detail what the military unit, the creator of which was Bochkareva, was then. In accordance with the law, the women's death battalion (historical facts confirm this) was equated to an independent unit and in its status corresponded to a regiment in which 1000 soldiers served.
The officer corps included representatives of the strong half who had considerable experience acquired on the fronts of the First World War. The battalion should not have had any political overtones. Its main purpose is to protect the Fatherland from external enemies.
Palace defense
Suddenly, one of the units of the women's death battalion in the First World War receives an order to go to Petrograd, where a parade was supposed to take place on October 24th. In reality, this was only an excuse to attract shockwomen to defend the facility from the Bolshevik attack with weapons in their hands. During this period, the palace garrison consisted of units of Cossacks and cadets, and therefore had no real military power.
The women who arrived at the scene were ordered to defend the southeastern wing of the building. For the first 24 hours they managed to push back the Red Guards and take control of the Nikolaevsky Bridge. But a day later, troops of the revolutionary committee settled around the building, which resulted in a fierce clash.
It was after this that the defenders of the residence, not wanting to give their lives for the newly appointed government, began to retreat from their positions. The women managed to hold out the longest, and only at ten o’clock were negotiators sent out with a statement of surrender. This opportunity was provided, but only on the conditions of complete disarmament.
The arrival of the Bolsheviks and subsequent events
After an armed coup in October, the decision was made to disband the Women's Death Battalion of the First World War, but it was dangerous to return home in uniform. Not without the participation of the Security Committee, the women managed to find civilian clothes in order to get to their homes.
It has been confirmed that during the events described, Maria Leontyevna was at the front and did not take part in them. Despite this, there is a myth that she commanded the defenders of the palace.
In the future, fate threw up many more unpleasant surprises. During the start civil war Bochkarev found himself between two fires. At first, in Smolny, the highest ranks of the new government persuaded her to take command of the Red Guard unit. After this, Marushevsky, the commander of the White Guards, also tried to win her over to his side. But everywhere she refused: it was one thing to fight against foreigners and defend her homeland, another thing was to kill her own compatriots. Maria almost paid with her freedom for her refusal.
Legendary life
After the capture of Tomsk, Bochkareva herself came to the commandant’s office to hand over her weapons. After some time, she was taken into custody and sent to Krasnoyarsk. The investigators were in prostration, not knowing what to present to her. But the head of the special department, Pavlunovsky, arrives in the city from the capital. Without even trying to study the situation superficially, he makes a decision - to shoot, which was done. Maria Bochkareva was killed on May sixteenth, 1919.
But her life was so unusual that her death gave rise to a huge number of legends. It is impossible to say exactly where Maria Leontyeva’s grave is located. Because of this, rumors arose that she managed to avoid execution, and she lived until the forties, taking for herself a completely different name.
But the main legend, of course, remains the woman herself, whose biography can be used to make an exciting film novel.
M.V. Vasiliev
1st Petrograd Women's Battalion in the events of 1917
annotation
The article reveals the history of the creation and training of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion. Through the prism of revolutionary events in Russia, questions of the social composition and size of this military unit are studied, and the history of its existence is built in chronological order.
Keywords
The First World War, women's battalions, revolution, Petrograd, Winter Palace.
M.V. Vasilyev
1st Petrograd Women’s Battalion in the Events of 1917
Abstract
The article reveals the story of creation and training of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion. Through the prism of revolutionary events in Russia examines issues of social structure, number of military units, in chronological sequence builds the story of his life.
Key words
World War I, women's battalions, revolution, Petrograd, the Winter Palace.
The most tragic and difficult year for the Russian army of all four years of the First World War was 1917. War fatigue and incredible overstrain, February Revolution and socialist propaganda in military units and at the front they did their job, the mass of soldiers seethed, increasingly getting out of the control of the officers. But if the rear units and capital garrisons from the first days of the revolution were drawn into the whirlpool of political and revolutionary events, then at the front in the first months of the revolution there was still relative calm. The masses of soldiers in wartime conditions were able to maintain relative discipline and took a wait-and-see attitude. Leader of the Cadet Party P.N. Miliukov subsequently wrote: “that for the first month or month and a half after the revolution, the army remained healthy.” It was at the front that the Provisional Government hoped to gain support from the mass of soldiers and victoriously end the war. But the fiery revolutionary speeches of the agitators about brotherhood and equality were no longer enough; fundamentally new transformations in the army were required, capable of uniting the mass of soldiers and raising their morale. For these purposes, already in April-May 1917, proposals began to come from different fronts to create new military formations - shock battalions, formed on the principle of voluntariness. The idea received the support of the Provisional Government and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General A.A. Brusilov, who declared himself the first drummer and called on other front-line soldiers to follow his example. Letters and telegrams began to be sent to the Minister of War from individuals and entire groups of military internal districts with requests for transfer to the newly created battalions. At times the situation reached absurd moments when even former deserters were found in the ranks of the shock troops. From the end of May 1917, not only “shock”, “assault” and revolutionary battalions were created in the army, but also units formed according to any particular principle - exclusively from cadets or cavaliers of St. George, prisoners of the Austro-Hungarian Yugoslav army. In the capital, a shock battalion of volunteer workers from the Obukhov plant was organized; shock battalions were formed from students, cadets and even disabled soldiers. In mid-July 1917, the number of volunteers was about two thousand people, and by the end of October - already 50 thousand. In general, the formed “shock”, “assault” and other battalions did not significantly change the situation at the front, representing last hope The Provisional Government, which expected, if necessary, to rely on the newly formed shock troops.
In the inexorable stream of turbulent events of 1917, one of the most extravagant and, undoubtedly, politically charged events was the organization of women's shock battalions and teams. A number of women's organizations came up with the initiative to create such detachments before the military department. In letters addressed to A.F. Kerensky stated that “Love for the Motherland and the desire to bring fresh intellectual forces into the ranks of our army, tired of the long war, calls us to join the ranks of the defenders of Russia. We will join the army, forming exclusively female units; we hope by our example to raise the fallen energy of the troops.” Various paramilitary forces played an important role in the formation of women's units. public organizations, one of which was the Organizing Committee of Women's Marching Units. On May 20, he turned to A.F. Kerensky with a request to allow the formation of “exclusively female detachments.” The same idea was supported by the Minister of War and Navy A.I. Guchkov, who believed that women’s battalions are capable of “carrying the rest of the soldiers to the feat.”
In domestic historiography, the fate of M.L.’s detachment has been studied in sufficient detail. Bochkareva, the only female military team that took part in the fighting at the front in the Molodechno region. The fate of other women's groups is much less well reflected, which is explained by the virtual absence of archival documents and the extremely short period of their existence. If the M.L. squad Bochkareva in the amount of 200 people was formed mainly from women who had already taken part in hostilities in various sectors of the front or Cossack women with experience in using weapons, then other volunteers arriving in Petrograd also needed to be taught the basics of military art. For these purposes, all women who signed up for the women's volunteer battalion were sent to a military camp near the Levashovo Finlyandskaya station railway, where their military training began on August 5, 1917.
Speaking about women's battalions, it is necessary to dwell on their appearance and social composition. One of the brightest characteristic features of these teams was the intelligence of the female volunteers, about 30% of whom were student students (including graduates of the “Bestuzhev” courses at the Alexander Women’s Gymnasium, considered one of the most prestigious women’s gymnasiums educational institutions Russia), and up to 40% had secondary education. Women's battalions united women of completely different professions and social status. Uniforms were worn by university graduates, teachers, nurses and domestic servants, peasant women and bourgeois women. Shock worker of the 1st Petrograd battalion M. Bocharnikova wrote in her memoirs: “The first impression was that it seemed that I was in a meadow dotted with bright flowers. Bright sundresses of peasant women, kerchiefs of nurses, multi-colored cotton dresses of factory workers, elegant dresses of young ladies from society, modest outfits of city employees, maids, nannies... Who was there! ...A hefty woman of about thirty is vigorously sticking out her already terrible-sized breasts, and her thin neighbor is not at all visible behind her figure. The nose is raised up. He throws his arms forward with ferocity. And there, further on, grinning, constantly bending her head to look at her legs, with which she strenuously beats her step, swims, apparently, a bourgeois woman. Some march like real soldiers. Almost without touching the ground, as if dancing, a pretty blonde moves. Isn’t she a ballerina?” .
Speaking about such a diverse social composition of women's formations, it is necessary to pay attention to the question of what forced women to voluntarily join the army and become soldiers. In answering this question, we must understand that many women sincerely believed that by their actions they could change the mood in the ranks of soldiers, shame them, and thereby help bring victory closer. The very atmosphere of revolutionary upsurge and democratic transformation in the country in 1917 only contributed to the emergence of such idealistic positions. Others simply fled from the troubles and problems of a difficult and hopeless life, seeing in the army a way to change something in their existence for the better. One of the shockwomen commented on her entry into the battalion: “And I from my (husband - M.V.) ran away. Oh, and he beat me, the damned one! I tore out half of my hair. When I heard that they were taking women as soldiers, I ran away from him and signed up. He went to complain, and the commissar said to him: “Now, after the leftist revolution, I’m weak. Don’t you dare touch a woman if she’s going to the military to defend Russia!” So she left." An American writer and journalist who worked in Russia at that time and communicated with the shock workers of Bochkareva’s detachment wrote: “Many went to the battalion because they sincerely believed that the honor and very existence of Russia was under threat, and that its salvation lay in a huge human self-sacrifice. Some, like Bochkareva herself from a Siberian village, one day came to the decision that this was better than the bleak and hard life they lived. Personal suffering brought some of them to the front lines. One of these girls, a Japanese woman, whom I asked about what brought her to the battalion, tragically said: “There are so many reasons that I probably won’t talk about them.” Another American journalist, Rita Dorr, in her publications cited another incident from the life of volunteers: “One of the girls, nineteen years old, a Cossack girl, pretty, with dark eyes, found herself completely abandoned to the mercy of fate after her father and two brothers were killed in battle, and her mother died during the shelling of the hospital where she worked. Bochkareva's battalion seemed to her safe place, and a rifle is the best way of defense." Other women utopian dreamed of showing heroism on the battlefields and becoming famous, and even making a military career - the ideas of feminism were also fueled by the revolution. There were a huge number of reasons for the activation of the women's movement in 1917; each volunteer had her own destiny and her own motives in order to decide on such a desperate step.
However, let us return to the Levashovsky military field camp, set up on the outskirts of Petrograd. For a month and a half, military everyday life began for the women of the 1st Petrograd Shock Battalion with a strict schedule and discipline, drill training on the parade ground, weapons study and shooting practice. The first officers sent to the battalion as instructors did not actually engage in combat training. “The company commander, who always showed up for drill training accompanied by some “mademoiselle”, apparently of “not difficult” behavior, trained more with her than with us. Half-company warrant officer Kurochkin, nicknamed the wet chicken, is a match for him. He, just like the first one, was fired, which we were incredibly happy about,” recalled M. Bocharnikova. Discipline and order were established only with the arrival of new company commanders, officers of the Nevsky Regiment, Lieutenant V.A. Somov, Lieutenant O.K. Loyal and ensign of the Semenovsky regiment K. Bolshakov. Assistant company commanders were also replaced. Thus, the sergeant major of the second company, an intelligent lady completely unsuitable for this position, was replaced by a 23-year-old Don Cossack woman, Maria Kochereshko. Having managed to take part in the battles at the front, having had two wounds, a holder of the St. George Cross with a forelock under K. Kryuchkov, the Cossack M. Kochereshko immediately brought order and discipline to the company.
However, in addition to military and drill training and other soldier’s routine, there was also time for various kinds fun. So, one day the company commander decided to organize a game of leapfrog, otherwise called “goats and rams.” At a distance of ten steps, some stood bent over, while others had to run over them. “I have never seen a man laugh so much in my life! Bent over with a groan, he clutched his stomach, like a woman in labor before giving birth, and tears flowed from his eyes. Yes and there was a reason! One, instead of jumping over, gave in with her knee, and both flew to the ground. The second one mounted on horseback, and they suffered the same fate. The third, before jumping, got stuck on them, and while one was plowing the ground with its nose, the second, spread out like a swallow, flew over its head. We ourselves were so weak from laughing that we could not run,” recalled a contemporary.
Despite the patriotic impulse and sincere readiness of women to serve Russia, the Petrograd battalion, like other female formations, was completely unprepared for military service, much less for combat, and at best could be used as a security team. During the training shooting, when the entire battalion fired a volley, only 28 bullets hit the targets, but the shooters killed a horse that came out from behind a hillock and broke a window on a train passing in the distance. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Situations sometimes reached absurd oddities, when volunteer sentries shot at crickets at night, sincerely believing that someone was sneaking towards them with a cigarette, or enthusiastically saluted “generals in uniforms embroidered with gold,” who in reality turned out to be just Petrograd doormen. Officers, sometimes checking the women's guards, took away rifles or bolts, which the guards themselves had naively given away. Many women subsequently admitted that by the phrase “while at post you cannot give personal weapons to anyone,” they meant the whole world, with the exception of their officers.
Despite the abundance of similar moments in the life of the battalion, its preparation was completed by October. The Main Directorate of the General Staff reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief that the formation of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion was completed, and it could be sent to the active army on October 25. He was supposed to be sent to the Romanian front. However, subsequent events in Petrograd dramatically changed the plans of the command. On October 24, the women's battalion was instructed to board carriages and arrive at Palace Square for a ceremonial parade. On the eve of the departure, Lieutenant Somov, secretly from others, rehearsed the passage of the company, bayonets bristling. A non-commissioned officer of the second company recalled: “...we cleaned ourselves, washed ourselves and wrote farewell letters home. A few days before the performance, the battalion commander tested our knowledge. The battalion was lined up in the field, and the 1st company, under its command, made all the changes, scattered into a chain, made dashes and went on the attack. He was pleased with the result of the preparation. October 24th arrived. Loaded into a carriage, and mounted scouts on foot, we marched to Petrograd singing. From one carriage came “Hey, come on, guys!..” with the rollicking refrain “I-ha-ha, I-ha-ha!” From the second - “Dust swirls along the road...”. Sad story an orphan Cossack returning from a raid. From the third - the daring “Oh, a river flows through the sand, yes!” They called to each other like roosters at dawn. At every stop, passengers and employees poured out onto the platform to listen to our singing.” Feeling the tense situation in Petrograd, the Provisional Government headed by A.F. Kerensky used the women's battalion blindly, planning to use it to fight the Bolsheviks if necessary. That is why, immediately upon arrival in Petrograd, the women were given clips of ammunition in case riots broke out during the parade. It should be noted that the ceremonial parade on Palace Square did take place, and Kerensky himself greeted the shockwomen. At this time, the real purpose of the battalion’s stay in the capital became clear. Having soberly assessed the situation, battalion commander Staff Captain A.V. Loskov decided to withdraw the women's battalion from the capital, realizing the pointlessness of its participation in revolutionary events. Minister of Railways A.V. Liverovsky in his diary recorded a conversation between the Minister of Trade and Industry A.I. Konovalov and the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Petrograd Military District, Ya.G. Bagratuni: Konovalov - “Why yesterday (October 24 - M.V. ) were women’s battalions withdrawn from Petrograd?”; Bagratuni - “According to the terms of quartering. In addition, I had to say that they willingly go to the front, but do not want to interfere in the political struggle.” Most of the battalion was withdrawn from Petrograd in the capital. The Provisional Government managed to leave only the 2nd company of the battalion, consisting of 137 people, under the pretext of delivering gasoline from the Nobel plant. “The 1st company headed straight to the station, and ours was led back to the square with the right shoulder. We see how the entire battalion, having passed a ceremonial march, also follows the 1st company and leaves for the station. The square is emptying. We are ordered to line up our rifles. From somewhere a rumor came that at the Nobel plant, it seems, the workers had rebelled and we were being sent there to requisition gasoline. Dissatisfied voices can be heard: “Our business is the front, and not to get involved in city unrest.” The command is heard: “Get to the gun!” We disassemble the rifles, and they lead us to the gates of the palace,” M. Bocharnikova recalled in her memoirs. On the evening of October 24, the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District ordered the company commander, Lieutenant V.A. Send Somov to guard the bridges: Nikolaevsky - half a platoon, Dvortsovsky - half a platoon and Liteyny - a platoon. The shock workers were tasked with helping to build bridges in order to cut off the working areas from the center and by fire prevent any attempt to build them again. However, these actions of the cadets and the 2nd company of the women's battalion ended in failure. Revolutionary sailors and Red Guards firmly held the bridges. By the evening of October 25, female shock troops, together with cadets, took part in a firefight defending the barricades at the Winter Palace. “...we receive an order to go to the barricades built by the cadets in front of the Winter Palace. At the gate, high above the ground, a lantern is burning. “Junkers, break the lantern!” Stones flew and glass shattered with a crash. A well-thrown stone extinguished the lamp. Complete darkness. It's hard to distinguish your neighbor. We scatter to the right behind the barricade, mingling with the cadets. As we later learned, Kerensky secretly left for the scooter riders, leaving Minister Konovalov and Doctor Kishkin in his place, but the scooter riders had already “blushed” and took part in the attack on the palace. At nine o'clock the Bolsheviks presented an ultimatum to surrender, which was rejected. At 9 o’clock suddenly “Hurray!” thundered ahead. The Bolsheviks went on the attack. In one minute everything around began to rumble. Rifle fire merged with machine gun fire. A gun fired from the Aurora. The cadets and I, standing behind the barricade, responded with frequent fire. I looked left and right. A continuous strip of flashing lights, as if hundreds of fireflies were fluttering. Sometimes the silhouette of someone's head appeared. The attack failed. The enemy lay down. The shooting then died down, then flared up with renewed vigor.” At this time, complete confusion and confusion was happening in the palace itself, some teams continued to fight, others laid down their arms and declared neutrality, conflicting information came from everywhere. No one dared to take overall leadership of the defense. Almost all participants in the defense recalled the bacchanalia that took place in the Winter Palace on the last day of the Provisional Government. At twelve o'clock in the morning on October 25, the women's battalion was ordered to withdraw to the Palace. In her memoirs, shock worker M. Bocharnikova wrote: “The women’s battalion [was ordered] to return to the building!” — swept through the chain. We go into the courtyard, and the huge gate is closed with a chain. I was sure that the entire company was in the building. But from Mr. Zurov’s letters I learned, from the words of the participants in the battle, that the second half-company defended the door. And when the cadets laid down their arms at the barricade, the volunteers still held out. How the Reds broke in and what happened, I don’t know. We are taken to the second floor into an empty room. “I’ll go find out about further orders,” says the company commander, heading towards the door. The commander does not return for a long time. The shooting stopped. A lieutenant appears at the door. The face is gloomy. “The palace has fallen. Ordered to surrender weapons." His words echoed like a death knell in my soul...” After the defenders of the Winter Palace laid down their arms, the women were sent to the Pavlovsk barracks, and the next day to the Levashovo station. The women's battalion, after returning to the officers' barracks, was again armed from the stocks of the armory and dug in, preparing for defense. And only the lack of the required amount of ammunition saved the battalion from complete destruction in a shootout with revolutionary soldiers. On October 30, the battalion was disarmed by the Red Army soldiers who arrived in Levashovo. 891 rifles, 4 machine guns, 24 checkers and 20 revolvers, as well as various equipment were seized. Female scouts delivered boxes of ammunition half an hour after the Red Guards left the military camp.
After disarmament, the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion continued to exist for another two months by inertia; discipline was maintained, guards were posted and various orders were carried out. Losing all hope of being sent to the front, volunteers began to go home or make their way to the front. It is known that some of the women were still able to reach the front in various units, most of them to the women’s company of the Turkestan division, some began to care for the wounded in military hospitals. Most of the battalion's personnel dispersed to various directions in November-December 1917. The Petrograd battalion finally ceased to exist on January 10, 1918, when staff captain A.V. Loskov provided a report on the dissolution of the battalion and the delivery of property to the commissariat and headquarters of the Red Guard.
The history of volunteer shock battalions (not only women’s) has developed in such a way that in recent months existence of the Provisional Government, it was they who became the main lever for maintaining order and discipline, thereby causing a storm of indignation and hatred from the rest of the soldiers against them. In the army, the bulk of the lower ranks perceived volunteers negatively and often hostilely, while the command staff saw in them the only hope for a change in the mood of the army and the possibility of bringing the war to a victorious end. The hostility of the soldiers was determined, among other things, by the fact that the Kornilov shock regiment and many shock battalions, especially cadets, in addition to or instead of direct combat use, were used by the command as barrage detachments and punitive teams. Soldiers' hatred of units of this type naturally extended to women's battalions; many soldiers demanded the arrest and even execution of the “kornilovka bitches.” The women's battalions were never able to fulfill their leading role- awakening patriotism and morale on the fronts. Among the mass of soldiers, the creation of women's military teams caused only a dull feeling of irritation and hatred. Despite the sincere desire of women to serve the Fatherland and the willingness to die for it, military women's teams remained just a bright surrogate of the degenerating army of 1917.
Gailesh K.I. Defense of the Winter Palace // Resistance to Bolshevism. 1917-1918 M., 2001. P. 9-15; Sinegub A.P. Defense of the Winter Palace (October 25 - November 7, 1917) // Resistance to Bolshevism. 1917 - 1918 pp. 21-119; Prussing O.G. Defense of the Winter Palace // Military Story. 1956. No. 20. September; Malyantovich P.N. In the Winter Palace on October 25-26, 1917 // Bygone. 1918. No. 12. pp. 111-141.
Vasiliev M.V. - member Russian Association historians of the First World War.
