Women's battalion of death Maria. Maria Bochkareva and her women's battalion
100 years ago, the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion was created, led by Maria Bochkareva
On June 21, 1917, the Provisional Government issued an unusual order: on the initiative of the holder of the St. George Cross, Maria Bochkareva, a battalion, unprecedented in the Russian army, was created, which consisted entirely of women. She also led the new “army”.
The glory of this woman during her lifetime - both in Russia and abroad - was not dreamed of by many modern “divas” from the world of show business. Reporters fought for the right to interview her, magazines published photographs of the female hero on the covers. Although Maria had neither beauty nor a mysterious love story.
However, Maria Bochkareva's star burned brightly for only a few years. And then her life ended in an early and inglorious death.
A drunkard's wife, a bandit's girlfriend, a governor's mistress
Maria's origins prepared her for an extremely unprepossessing and predictable fate: born in July 1889 into a poor peasant family, at the age of 16 she was married to Afanasia Bochkareva- a simple worker, eight years older than her. They lived in Tomsk; the newly-made husband suffered from alcoholism. And Maria, willy-nilly, began to look to the side.
Her gaze quickly fell on Yankel, or Yakov, Buk- a Jew who “officially” worked as a butcher, but in fact was engaged in robbery in one of the Tomsk gangs. A romance began between them, but soon Yakov was arrested and sent to Yakutsk.
23-year-old Bochkareva decided to try the fate of a Decembrist for herself - and followed her beloved to the settlement. However, Yankel’s dashing soul did not allow him to live in peace even there: he began buying up stolen goods, and then, having teamed up with the same desperate people, carried out an attack on the post office.
As a result, Buk faced deportation to Kolymsk. The Yakut governor, however, did not refuse Maria, who asked for leniency for her lover. But in return he asked for something for himself.
Bochkareva, reluctantly, agreed. But after sleeping with an official, she felt such disgust with herself that she tried to poison herself. Yakov, having learned about what had happened, rushed to the governor and only miraculously did not kill the “seducer”: they managed to tie him up on the threshold of the office.
Mary's relationship with her lover fell apart.
Unter Yashka
Who knows how it would have ended if Russia had not entered the First World War on August 1, 1914. In the wake of the patriotic upsurge that swept the empire, 25-year-old Bochkareva decided... to break with the disgusted “citizen” and become a soldier.
Getting into the active army, however, was not at all easy. At first, she was only offered to become a sister of mercy. And she wanted to fight for real. Whether jokingly or seriously, the military gave her advice - to seek permission from the emperor himself. NicholasII.
If Maria had a sense of humor, she considered it inappropriate to apply it to this situation. Taking the last eight rubles she had left from her pocket, Bochkareva went to the post office - and sent a telegram to the highest name.
Imagine everyone’s surprise when a positive answer soon came from St. Petersburg! Maria was enrolled as a civilian soldier.
When asked by her colleagues what her name was, the woman began to answer: “Yashka.” It must be admitted that in many photographs in uniform, Bochkareva is simply impossible to distinguish from a man.
Soon, the unit where “Yashka” was enrolled ended up at the front, and there Bochkareva was finally able to prove her worth. She fearlessly carried out a bayonet attack, pulled the wounded out of the battlefield, and received several wounds herself. By 1917, she had risen to the rank of senior non-commissioned officer, and on her chest were three medals and the St. George Cross.
However, to win the war, the efforts of one woman, although unusually strong in body and spirit, were not enough. Although the Provisional Government in February 17 started talking about “war to a victorious end,” the country was already in a pre-revolutionary fever, and the soldiers were tired of suffering defeats, rotting in the trenches and thinking about what was happening in their families. The army was falling apart before our eyes.
Death as a banner
The authorities frantically searched for a way to raise army morale. One of the leaders of the February Revolution Mikhail Rodzianko decided to go to Western Front agitate for the continuation of the war. But who will believe him, the “rear rat”? It would be a different matter to take Bochkareva with you, about whom legends had already begun to circulate by that time and who was highly respected.
Having arrived in Petrograd with Rodzianko, “Unter Yashka” attended a meeting of the congress of soldiers’ deputies of the Petrograd Soviet, with whom she shared her idea of creating women’s volunteer battalions. “Death battalions” was the name proposed for the units. They say, if women are not afraid to die on the battlefield, then what can male soldiers do, suddenly afraid of war?
Bochkareva’s appeal was immediately published in newspapers, and with the approval of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Alexey Brusilov Recruitment for women's army teams has begun across the country.
There were unexpectedly many Russian women who wanted to join the army. Among the several thousand who signed up for the battalions were female students, teachers, hereditary Cossack women, and representatives of noble families.
For a whole month, the “recruits” worked hard in army exercises, and on June 21, 1917, a very solemn ceremony took place on the square near St. Isaac’s Cathedral in Petrograd: the new unit was presented with a banner on which was inscribed: “The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva.” After this, the battalion bravely marched through the city streets, where the soldiers were greeted by thousands of people.
The female face of war
Two days later, the unit went to Belarus, to the Novospassky forest area near Smorgon. And already on July 8, 1917, the “death battalion” entered into battle for the first time: the Germans wedged themselves into the location of the Russian troops. Over three days, Bochkareva and her colleagues repelled 14 enemy attacks.
Colonel Vladimir Zakrzhevsky later reported on the heroic behavior of the girls in battle and that they really set an example for others not only of courage, but also of calm.
But the battalions of “Russian heroes” surrounding the women’s team, in the general’s words Anton Denikin, at that moment they got cold feet, gave in and were unable to support the fiery impulse of the soldiers. “When the pitch hell of enemy artillery fire broke out, the poor women, having forgotten the technique of scattered combat, huddled together - helpless, alone in their section of the field, loosened by German bombs,” the general later recalled. - We suffered losses. And the “heroes” partly returned, and partly did not leave the trenches at all.”
Needless to say, this behavior of the male soldiers infuriated Bochkareva into indescribable rage. Of the 170 members of her battalion, in the very first days of the battle with the enemy, 30 people were killed and over 70 were wounded. The battalion commander's anger was looking for an opportunity to fall on someone's head. And I found it.
Soon she came across a couple who hid behind a tree trunk for purely intimate purposes. Bochkareva was so enraged by this that she, without hesitation, pierced the “girl” with a bayonet. And the unlucky lover ran away cowardly...
White music of revolutions
Three months later the October Revolution broke out. Having learned about it, Bochkareva was forced to dismiss the surviving subordinates to their homes, and she herself went to Petrograd.
She was sure that the revolution “would lead Russia not to happiness, but to destruction,” and that she was not on the same path with the Reds. There was only one way out: to rely on the White Guards and support them with everything possible.
In 1918, on behalf of the general Lavra Kornilova left Vladivostok on a propaganda tour of England and the United States. Its task was to attract Western politicians to help White movement. In the USA she met with the President Woodrow Wilson, in Britain - with the king George V.
Returning to Russia, she went to Siberia - to the admiral Alexander Kolchak, who proposed repeating the experience with the death battalion and forming a women’s military sanitary detachment under the leadership of Bochkareva. “Yashka” began work, but the team it assembled turned out to be of no use to anyone: Kolchak’s days were already numbered.
Left without the only thing she knew how to do well, Maria gave up and started drinking. From time to time she came to Kolchak’s headquarters with demands to officially retire her with the right to wear a uniform and award her the rank of staff captain.
When the Reds took Tomsk, Bochkareva voluntarily came to the city commandant, surrendered her weapons and offered Soviet power cooperation. At first, she was given a written undertaking not to leave the place and was sent home, but later, at the beginning of 1920, she was arrested.
The investigation was unable to prove her participation in “counter-revolutionary activities,” so the special department of the 5th Army wanted to transfer Bochkareva’s case to the Moscow Special Department of the Cheka. But unfortunately for Maria, the deputy head of the Special Department just arrived in Siberia at that time, Ivan Pavlunovsky. He did not understand what could confuse the local security officers in the story of the famous soldier, and wrote a short resolution on her case: “Bochkareva Maria Leontievna - shoot.”
On May 16, 1920, according to official data, the sentence was carried out. A note about this was also preserved on the cover of the case.
Maria Leontyevna was rehabilitated in 1992. At the same time, the Russian Prosecutor's Office unexpectedly announced that there was no evidence of the woman's execution in the archives.
Some historians believe that the former commander of the death battalion could have escaped in 1920: having escaped from the Krasnoyarsk dungeons, she went to Harbin, China, using forged documents, changed her first and last name and settled somewhere in the vicinity of Eastern China. railway(CER). In the late 20s, however, she could have been forcibly deported to the USSR, like some other immigrants from Russia. Whether this was the case or not, unfortunately, we are unlikely to ever know for sure.
Headquarters of the women's "Death Battalion". Bochkarev in the center, with a red revolutionary bow, the St. George Cross of the 4th class, two St. George medals of the 3rd and 4th class. and the medal "For Diligence" on the Stanislav Ribbon. (in the initial period of WW1 this medal was awarded as military award). Original photograph from 1917.
Maria Bochkareva was born in the village of Nikolskoye, Novgorod province, in the summer of 1889 into a peasant family. A few years later, escaping poverty, they moved to Siberia. Where the state promised support in the form of land shares and finance. At the age of fifteen, the girl was married to 23-year-old Afanasy Bochkarev. Her husband drank, and the girl went to the Jew, the butcher Yakov Buk. Personal life I didn't get along with him either. Buk was accused of robbery and exiled to Yakutsk.
The First World War began. Maria, tired of living either as a criminal or with a drunkard, decided to go to the front. But according to the laws of that time, women could not serve in the active army. Bochkareva drafted a telegram with a petition to the Tsar - and received the Highest permission to perform military service!
Bochkareva went to the front, where at first she caused laughter among her colleagues. However, her fearlessness in countless battles, two wounds in battle brought Bochkareva respect among her colleagues, the St. George Cross, three medals and the rank of senior non-commissioned officer.
Creation of the women's "Death Battalion" by Maria Bochkareva
In Petrograd, where she was taken for propaganda work “for the war to victory,” Bochkareva proposed creating shock “death battalions” consisting exclusively of women. With this idea she was sent to a meeting of the Provisional Government, where she received support. At the top, first of all, they saw this as a propaganda goal - to raise the spirit of patriotism, to stir up men who did not want to serve and fight, with the example of the Women's Battalions. The wife of the head of government, Kerensky, also took part in the creation of such a formation.
And already on June 21, 1917, near St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the banner of a new military unit with the inscription “The first women’s military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva” scattered in the wind. Iron discipline became the law for her. Subordinates even complained to their superiors that the commander hit people’s faces like a real sergeant.
Review of the death battalion conducted by the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General. Polovtsev. The photograph is more famous, as it was reproduced on photo postcards issued in a fairly large circulation.
Baptism of fire of the Death Battalion under the command of Maria Bochkareva
A week later, the battalion arrived in Molodechno, in the active army of the Western Front. On July 7, 1917, an order was received to take positions near the town of Krevo. This was the first combat experience of the Women's Death Battalion of Maria Bochkareva. The enemy launched a pre-emptive strike and crashed into the location of Russian troops. Over the course of three days, the regiment repelled 14 German attacks, launched counterattacks and, in the end, knocked the enemy out of their positions.
According to Bochkareva, in that battle she lost more than half personnel battalion wounded and killed. Having been wounded for the fifth time, she ended up in the capital’s hospital. Here she was given the rank of second lieutenant.
Heavy losses in the ranks of women volunteers led to the fact that the main supreme commander, General Kornilov, prohibited the further formation of women's battalions to participate in battles. The existing units were supposed to serve in communications, security, and medicine. As a result of this decree, many women who wanted to fight for their homeland in battles filed for dismissal from the “death units.”
After the dissolution of the death battalion, some time later, Bochkareva was detained by the Bolsheviks and she almost ended up on trial. But thanks to her colleagues, she escaped and eventually arrived in the United States for the purpose of anti-Soviet agitation. Her activities were quite active. In the summer of 1918, she was granted an audience at the White House with President Wilson, then Europe and a meeting with King George V, where she secured financial support. Then, again Russia, Arkhangelsk, Omsk, meeting with Admiral Kolchak. However, all this was already belated steps in a complete disaster on the White Front.
On January 7, 1920, the former commander of the women's Death Battalion, Maria Bochkareva, was arrested by the Bolsheviks. And she, as “the worst and implacable enemy of the workers’ and peasants’ republic,” was sentenced to death.
However, there is no evidence of the execution. There is a version that her friends freed her from prison and she went to Harbin. Here she met a former fellow soldier-widower, who became her husband. Maria Bochkareva herself did not have any children of her own and she dedicated her love to her husband’s sons, who died in the battles of the Great Patriotic War.
GoogleThere 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 almost all conscious life remained illiterate, King George V, during a personal meeting, called her “the Russian Joan of Arc.” Fate was destined for her to become the first female officer in the 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. Besides 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 next 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's life and approved schedule. 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 to this, under strict ban there was 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 large quantity 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 this is confirmed) was equated to an independent unit and in its status corresponded to a regiment in which 1000 soldiers served.
IN officers 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 birth to great amount 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.
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.
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.
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, total number up to 2000 girls. 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 took place to present the new military unit with a white banner with the inscription “The first women’s military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva.” On June 29, the Military Council approved the regulation “On the formation of military units from female volunteers.” The appearance of Bochkareva’s detachment served as an impetus for the formation of women’s detachments in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but in connection with historical development events, the creation of these 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 “an unwillingness to live if Russia perishes.”
M. Bochkareva banned any party propaganda and the organization of any councils and committees in her battalion. Due to harsh discipline, a split occurred in the 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.
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 of volunteers also had other consequences for the women’s battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief L. G. Kornilov, by his Order, prohibited the creation of new women’s “death battalions” for combat use, and 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.”
The second Moscow battalion, which left the command of Bochkareva, had the lot to be among last defenders Provisional Government during the October Revolution. This was the only military unit that 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.
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 poorly by the soldiers, but what now most of they are located 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 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 accepted Active participation 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 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 World War broke out, and Bochkareva decided to end her taiga-robber stage of life and go to the front, especially since Yashka became more and more brutal with 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 stand this treatment: in a short time the number of female volunteers was reduced to 300. 
But nevertheless, on June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac’s Cathedral in Petrograd, a solemn ceremony took place to present the new military unit with a white banner with the inscription “The first women’s military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva.” On June 29, the Military Council approved the regulation “On the formation of military units from female volunteers.” The appearance of Bochkareva’s detachment served as an impetus for the formation of women’s units in other cities of the country (Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku, Odessa, Mariupol), but due to the historical development of 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 “an 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 of volunteers also had other consequences for the women’s battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief L. G. Kornilov, by his Order, prohibited the creation of new women’s “death battalions” for combat use, and 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. This was the only military unit that 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.