Women's battalion read. Secret Stories - Women's Death Battalion

Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna (née Frolkova, July 1889 - May 1920) - often considered the first Russian female officer (promoted during the 1917 revolution). Bochkareva created the first women's battalion in the history of the Russian army. Knight of the St. George's Cross.

In July 1889, the peasants of the village of Nikolskoye, Kirillovsky district, Novgorod province, Leonty Semenovich and Olga Eleazarovna Frolkova, had a third child - daughter Marusya. Soon the family, escaping poverty, moved to Siberia, where the government promised the settlers large plots of land and financial support. But, apparently, it was not possible to escape poverty here either. At the age of fifteen, Maria was married off. In the book of the Resurrection Church, the following entry dated January 22, 1905 was preserved: “In his first marriage, Afanasy Sergeevich Bochkarev, 23 years old, of the Orthodox faith, living in the Tomsk province, Tomsk district of the Semiluksk volost of the village of Bolshoye Kuskovo, married the girl Maria Leontyevna Frolkova, of the Orthodox faith...” . They settled in Tomsk. Married life almost immediately went wrong, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunkard husband without regret. Maria left him for the butcher Yakov Buk. In May 1912, Buk was arrested on charges of robbery and sent to serve his sentence in Yakutsk. Bochkareva followed him on foot to Eastern Siberia, where they opened a butcher shop as a cover, although in reality Buk lived in a gang of Honghuz. Soon the police were on the trail of the gang, and Buk was transferred to a settlement in the taiga village of Amga.

Although Bochkareva again followed in his footsteps, her betrothed started drinking and began to engage in assault. At this time the First World War broke out. Bochkareva decided to join the ranks of the active army and, parting with her Yashka, arrived in Tomsk. The military refused to enroll the girl in the 24th reserve battalion and advised her to go to the front as a nurse. Then Bochkareva sent a telegram to the Tsar, which unexpectedly received a positive response. That's how she got to 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.

In 1917, Kerensky turned to Bochkareva with a request to organize a “women’s death battalion”; his wife and St. Petersburg institutes were involved in the patriotic project, total number up to 2000 people. In the unusual military unit, iron discipline reigned: subordinates complained to their superiors that Bochkareva was “beating people in the face 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 three hundred. The rest were assigned to a special women's battalion that defended the Winter Palace during the October Revolution.
In the summer of 1917, Bochkareva’s detachment distinguished itself at Smorgon; his tenacity made an indelible impression on the command (Anton Denikin). After a shell shock received in that battle, warrant officer Bochkareva was sent to recover in a Petrograd hospital, and in the capital she received the rank of second lieutenant, but soon after returning to her position she had to disband the battalion, due to the actual collapse of the front and the October Revolution.
Maria Bochkareva among the defenders of Petrograd

In winter, she was detained by the Bolsheviks on the way to Tomsk. After refusing to cooperate with the new authorities, she was accused of having relations with General Kornilov, and the matter almost came to court. Thanks to the help of one of her former colleagues, Bochkareva broke free and, dressed as a sister of mercy, traveled across the country to Vladivostok, from where she sailed on a campaign trip to the USA and Europe.

In April 1918, Bochkareva arrived in San Francisco. With the support of the influential and wealthy Florence Harriman, the daughter of a Russian peasant crossed the United States and was granted an audience with President Woodrow Wilson at the White House on July 10. According to eyewitnesses, Bochkareva’s story about her dramatic fate and pleas for help against the Bolsheviks moved the president to tears.
Maria Bochkareva, Emmeline Pankhurst (British public and political figure, women's rights activist, leader of the British suffragette movement) and a woman from the Women's Battalion, 1917.

Maria Bochkareva and Emmeline Pankhurst

Journalist Isaac Don Levin, based on Bochkareva’s stories, wrote a book about her life, which was published in 1919 under the title “Yashka” and was translated into several languages.
After visiting London, where she met King George V and enlisted his financial support, Bochkareva arrived in Arkhangelsk in August 1918. She hoped to rouse local women to fight the Bolsheviks, but things went poorly. General Marushevsky, in an order dated December 27, 1918, announced that the conscription of women to jobs unsuitable for them military service will be a disgrace for the population of the Northern region, and forbade Bochkareva to wear the officer’s uniform self-proclaimed to her.
IN next year she was already in Tomsk under the banner of Admiral Kolchak, trying to put together a battalion of nurses. She regarded Kolchak’s flight from Omsk as a betrayal and voluntarily came to the local authorities, who took her undertaking not to leave.
Siberian period (19th year, on the Kolchak fronts...)

A few days later, during a church service, 31-year-old Bochkareva was taken into custody by security officers. Clear evidence of her treason or collaboration with the whites could not be found, and the proceedings dragged on for four months. According to the Soviet version, on May 16, 1920, she was shot in Krasnoyarsk on the basis of a resolution by the head of the Special Department of the Cheka of the 5th Army, Ivan Pavlunovsky, and his deputy Shimanovsky. But the conclusion of the Russian prosecutor's office on the rehabilitation of Bochkareva in 1992 said that there was no evidence of her execution.
Women's battalions
M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a campaign trip to Western Front, where Bochkareva served, specifically asked for a meeting with her and took her with him to Petrograd to agitate “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. In a speech to the delegates of the congress, Bochkareva first voiced her idea of creating shock women’s “death battalions.” After this, she was invited to a meeting of the Provisional Government to repeat her proposal.
“I was told that my idea was great, but I needed to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. Together with Rodzianka, I went to Brusilov’s Headquarters. Brusilov told me in his office that you hope for women, and that the formation of a women’s battalion is the first in the world. Can't women disgrace Russia? I told Brusilov that I myself am not confident in women, but if you give me full authority, then I guarantee that my battalion will not disgrace Russia. Brusilov told me that he believes me, and will try in every possible way to help in the formation of a women’s volunteer battalion.”
Battalion recruits

On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, 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.”

“Kerensky listened with obvious impatience. It was obvious that he had already made a decision on this matter. He doubted only one thing: whether I could maintain high morale and ethics in this battalion. Kerensky said that he would allow me to begin formation immediately<�…>When Kerensky accompanied me to the door, his gaze settled on General Polovtsev. He asked him to provide me with any necessary assistance. I almost suffocated with happiness."
The commander of the Petrograd Military District, General P. A. Polovtsov, conducts a review of the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion. Summer 1917

First of all, front-line soldiers, of whom there were a certain number back in imperial army, some of them were Knights of St. George, and women from civil society - noblewomen, student students, teachers, workers. The percentage of female soldiers and Cossack women was large: 38. Bochkareva’s battalion included girls from many of Russia’s famous noble families, as well as simple peasant women and servants. Maria N. Skrydlova, the admiral’s daughter, served as Bochkareva’s adjutant. By nationality, the volunteers were mostly Russian, but there were also other nationalities - Estonians, Latvians, Jews, and Englishmen. The number of women's formations ranged from 250 to 1,500 fighters each. The formation took place entirely on a voluntary basis.

The appearance of Bochkareva’s unit 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 intensifying processes of destruction of the entire state, the creation of these women’s units parts were never completed.
Recruit training

Women's Battalion. Camping life training.

At the training camp in Levashevo

Mounted Scouts of the Women's Battalion

Volunteers during rest hours

Officially, as of October 1917, there were: 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion (infantry); Marine women's team (Oranienbaum); Cavalry 1st Petrograd Battalion of the Women's Military Union; Minsk separate guard squad of female volunteers. The first three battalions visited the front, only Bochkareva’s 1st battalion was in battle
The mass of soldiers and the Soviets perceived the “women’s death battalions” (as well as all other “shock units”) with hostility. The front-line soldiers did not call the shock workers anything other than prostitutes. At the beginning of July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded that all “women’s battalions” be disbanded, both because they were “unsuitable for military service” and because the formation of such battalions “is a secretive maneuver of the bourgeoisie who want to wage the war to a victorious end.”
Ceremonial farewell to the front of the First Women's Battalion. Photo. Moscow Red Square. summer 1917

On June 27, the “battalion of death” consisting of two hundred volunteers arrived in the active army - in the rear units of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army of the Western Front in the region of Molodechno. On July 7, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock troops, received an order to take positions at the front near the town of Krevo. The "Death Battalion" took up positions on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, the first battle of Bochkareva’s battalion took place. 170 women took part in the bloody battles that lasted until July 10. The regiment repelled 14 German attacks. The volunteers launched counterattacks several times. Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in a report on the actions of the “death battalion”:
Bochkareva’s detachment behaved heroically in battle, always in the front line, serving on an equal basis with the soldiers. When the Germans attacked, on his own initiative he rushed as one into a counterattack; brought cartridges, went to secrets, and some to reconnaissance; With their work, the death squad set an example of bravery, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes is worthy of the title of warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.
Private of the Women's Battalion Pelageya Saigin

The battalion lost 30 people killed and 70 wounded. Maria Bochkareva, herself wounded in this battle for the fifth time, spent 1½ months in the hospital and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.
In hospital

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”
One of the women's death battalions (1st Petrograd, under the command of the Life Guards Kexholm Regiment: 39 Staff Captain A.V. Loskov), together with cadets and other units loyal to the oath, took part in the defense of the Winter Palace in October 1917. , which housed the Provisional Government.
November 7 battalion stationed near Levashovo Finlyandskaya station railway, was supposed to go to the Romanian front (according to the command’s plans, it was planned that each of the formed women’s battalions would be sent to the front to raise the morale of male soldiers - one to each of the four fronts of the Eastern Front).
1st Petrograd Women's Battalion

But on November 6, battalion commander Loskov received orders to send the battalion to Petrograd “for a parade” (in fact, to guard the Provisional Government). Loskov, having learned about the real task, not wanting to drag volunteers into a political confrontation, withdrew the entire battalion from Petrograd back to Levashovo, with the exception of the 2nd company (137 people).
2nd company of the 1st Petrograd women's battalion

The headquarters of the Petrograd Military District tried, with the help of two platoons of volunteers and units of cadets, to ensure the construction of the Nikolaevsky, Dvortsovy and Liteiny bridges, but the Sovietized sailors thwarted this task.
Volunteers on the square in front of the Winter Palace. November 7, 1917

The company took up defensive positions on the ground floor of the Winter Palace in the area to the right of the main gate to Millionnaya Street. At night, during the storming of the palace by the revolutionaries, the company surrendered, was disarmed and taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier regiment, where some shockwomen were “treated badly” - as a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma established, three shockwomen were raped (although, perhaps, few dared to admit it), one committed suicide. On November 8, the company was sent to its previous location in Levashovo.
After the October Revolution, the Bolshevik government, which set a course for the complete collapse of the army, immediate defeat in the war and imprisonment separate peace with Germany, was not interested in maintaining the “shock units”. On November 30, 1917, the Military Council of the still old War Ministry issued an order to disband the “women’s death battalions.” Shortly before this, on November 19, by order of the War Ministry, all female military personnel were promoted to officers, “for military merit.” However, many volunteers remained in their units until January 1918 and beyond. Some of them moved to the Don and took part in the fight against Bolshevism in the ranks of the White movement.
Women's battalion death 1917

March forward, forward to battle,
Women soldiers!
The dashing sound calls you into battle,
The adversaries will tremble!
From the song of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion .

On June 19, 1917, the Provisional Government formed the first women's death battalion. No other army in the world knew such a female military formation.
The idea of creating such battalions belongs to M. L. Bochkareva, who made a call in May 1917: “Citizens, all who value the freedom and happiness of Russia, hurry to join our ranks, hurry before it is too late to stop the decay of our dear Motherland. By direct participation in hostilities, not sparing our lives, we, citizens, must raise the spirit of the army and through educational and propaganda work in its ranks, evoke a reasonable understanding of the duty of a free citizen to the Motherland!
M. Bochkareva firmly stated: “If I undertake the formation of a women’s battalion, then I will be responsible for every woman in it. I will introduce strict discipline and will not allow them to speak or roam the streets. When Mother Russia perishes, there is neither time nor need to control the army through committees. Although I am a simple Russian peasant, I know that only discipline can save the Russian army. In the battalion I propose, I will have complete sole authority and achieve obedience. Otherwise, there is no need to create a battalion.”

On June 2, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony was held to present the new military unit with a banner with the inscription “The first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva.”

Parade on St. Isaac's Square. March of Maria Bochkareva with the banner of the death battalion.

Banner of the Women's Death Battalion.

Ceremonial farewell to the front of the First Women's Battalion. Photo. Moscow Red Square. 1917 G.

The attitude towards women's battalions was ambiguous, often wary. Supreme Commander-in-Chief Alexei Brusilov expressed doubt whether they should be introduced into the Russian army, noting that such formations do not exist anywhere else in the world. The appeal of the Moscow Women's Union said: “Not a single people in the world has reached such a shame that instead of male deserters weak women went to the front. The women's army will be the one living water, which will make the Russian hero wake up.”

Women's Death Battalion. Summer 1917

Soldier of the Women's Death Battalion .

On June 29, the Military Council approved the regulation “On the formation of military units from female volunteers.” The main goal was considered to have a patriotic influence on male soldiers through the direct participation of women in combat. As M. Bochkareva herself wrote, “soldiers in this great war they are tired and need to be helped... morally.”
Since there were enough women willing to enlist in military service, the Main Directorate of the General Staff took the initiative to divide all volunteers into three categories. The first was to include those who directly fight at the front; in the second category - auxiliary units (communications, railway security); and, finally, in the third - nurses in hospitals.

According to the conditions of admission, a woman aged 16 years (with parental permission) to 40 years old could join the women’s death battalion. At the same time, there was an educational qualification. Women had to undergo a medical examination, which primarily screened out pregnant women.

The commander of the Petrograd Military District, General Polovtsev, inspects the battalion. Photo. Summer 1917 G.

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.”

Women's death battalions. June 1917 - November 1918. At the hairdresser's. Haircut bald. Photo. Summer 1917 G.

M. Bochkareva banned any party propaganda and the organization of any councils and committees in her battalion. Due to the harsh discipline, a split occurred in the still-forming battalion: Some of the women, who fell under the influence of Bolshevik propaganda, attempted to form a soldiers’ committee and sharply criticized the strict discipline. 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 the 2nd Moscow Shock Battalion was formed.
The 2nd Moscow battalion was given a lot to be among last defenders Provisional Government during the October Revolution. The defense of the Winter Palace for women ended disastrously.
While Bochkarev’s team was fighting at the front, the 2nd women’s battalion, consisting of expelled “frivolous persons”, was stationed at the Levashovo station of the Finnish Railway. The day before the October coup, the unit was inspected by Kerensky, who selected a second company to guard the Winter Palace. The rest returned to the camps, a few days later they were disarmed by the Red Guards and sent home. The women defenders selected to protect the palace on the eve of hostilities were taken to the Winter House Church, with tears in their eyes the priest blessed them for their exploits, and in the evening the building began to be shelled. The battalion shockwomen were taken out of the palace and ordered to go on the attack. A hail of bullets immediately fell on the poor fellows, knocking them all to the ground. The battalion's attack quickly fizzled out, the women were surrounded, ordered to surrender their weapons and go to the barracks. On the way, the crowd insulted the warriors walking under escort, everyone demanded their death. Subsequently, the corpses of several dozen surrendered defenders of the Winter Palace were found in Petrograd canals.

Women's battalion guarding the Winter Palace.

October Revolution of 1917. Second women's battalion on Palace Square. Photo 1917 G.

Baptism of fire 1st Battalion accepted 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.

In service. Photo. Summer 1917 G.

All over the country, women's units were being formed. Officially, as of October 1917, the following were listed: 1st Petrogradsky women's death battalion , 2nd Moscow women's death battalion , 3rd Kuban women's shock battalion. Women's communications teams were also organized: in Petrograd - 2, in Moscow - 2, in Kiev - 5, in Saratov - 2. The spontaneous formation of women's teams took place in Kiev, Minsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Baku , Odessa, Mariupol. In June, the order to form the first Naval women's team was announced. The formation took place entirely on a volunteer basis.
Raising funds for the creation of the 4th Infantry Women's Signal Brigade.

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 the United States to ask for help to fight the Bolsheviks. Upon returning to Russia on November 10, 1919, M. Bochkareva met with Admiral Kolchak. And on his instructions, she formed a women’s sanitary detachment of 200 people. In November 1919, after the capture of Omsk by the Red Army, she was arrested and shot.

Drill exercises. Summer 1917 G.

Maria Bochkareva , Emmeline Pankhurst and soldiers of the Women's Battalion .

In service.

In field.

At lunch.

Sources:
Memoirs of M.A. Rychkova.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

Women and war - this combination of incongruous things was born at the very end old Russia. The point of creating women's death battalions was to raise the patriotic spirit of the army and shame by example male soldiers refusing to fight.

The initiator of the creation of the first women's battalion was senior non-commissioned officer Maria Leontievna Bochkareva, holder of the St. George Cross and one of the first Russian female officers. Maria was born in July 1889 into a peasant family. In 1905, she married 23-year-old Afanasy Bochkarev. Married life did not work out almost immediately, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunkard husband without regret.

On August 1, 1914, Russia entered into world war. The country was gripped by patriotic enthusiasm, and Maria Bochkareva decided to join the active army as a soldier. In November 1914, in Tomsk, she appealed to the commander of the 25th reserve battalion with a request to enlist her in the regular army. He invites her to go to the front as a sister of mercy, but Maria insists on her own. The annoying petitioner is given ironic advice - to contact the emperor directly. For the last eight rubles, Bochkareva sends a telegram to the highest name and soon, to her great surprise, receives a positive response. She was enrolled as a civilian soldier. Maria fearlessly went into bayonet attacks, pulled the wounded out of the battlefield, and was wounded several times. “For outstanding valor” she received the St. George Cross and three medals. Soon she was awarded the rank of junior and then senior non-commissioned officer.

Maria Bochkareva

After the fall of the monarchy, Maria Bochkareva began the formation of women's battalions. Having secured the support of the Provisional Government, she spoke at the Tauride Palace calling for the creation of women's battalions to defend the Fatherland. Soon her call was published in newspapers, and the whole country learned about women's teams. On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, 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 the left flank of the detachment, in a brand new ensign’s uniform, stood an excited Maria: “I thought that all eyes were fixed on me alone. Petrograd Archbishop Veniamin and Ufa Archbishop bid farewell to our death battalion with the image of Tikhvin Mother of God. It’s finished, the front is ahead!”

The Women's Death Battalion goes to the front in World War I

Finally, the battalion marched solemnly through the streets of Petrograd, where it was greeted by thousands of people. On June 23, an unusual military unit went to the front, to the Novospassky forest area, north of the city Molodechno, near Smorgon (Belarus). On July 9, 1917, according to the plans of the Headquarters, the Western Front was supposed to go on the offensive. On July 7, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock troops, received an order to take positions at the front near the town of Krevo.

The "death battalion" was on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, 1917, he entered into battle for the first time, since the enemy, knowing about the plans of the Russian command, launched a preemptive strike and wedged itself into the location of the Russian troops. Over three days, the regiment repelled 14 attacks by German troops. Several times the battalion launched counterattacks and knocked the Germans out of the Russian positions occupied the day before. Many commanders noted the desperate heroism of the women's battalion on the battlefield. So Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky, in his report on the actions of the “death battalion,” wrote: “Bochkareva’s detachment behaved heroically in battle, all the time in the front line, serving on an equal basis with the soldiers. When the Germans attacked, on his own initiative he rushed as one into a counterattack; brought cartridges, went to secrets, and some to reconnaissance; With their work, the death squad set an example of bravery, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes is worthy of the title of warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.” Even General Anton Denikin, the future leader of the White movement, who was very skeptical about such “army surrogates,” recognized the outstanding valor of female soldiers. He wrote: “The women’s battalion, attached to one of the corps, valiantly went on the attack, not supported by the “Russian heroes.” And 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. We suffered losses. And the “heroes” partly returned, and partly did not leave the trenches at all.”

Bochkareva is first on the left.

There were 6 nurses, formerly actual doctors, factory workers, office workers and peasants who also came to die for their country.One of the girls was only 15 years old. Her father and two brothers died at the front, and her mother was killed when she was working in a hospital and came under fire. At 15 years old, they could only pick up a rifle and join the battalion. She thought she was safe here.

According to Bochkareva herself, out of 170 people who took part in the hostilities, the battalion lost up to 30 people killed and up to 70 wounded. Maria Bochkareva, herself wounded in this battle for the fifth time, spent a month and a half in the hospital and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. After recovery, she received an order from the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief Lavr Kornilov to inspect the women’s battalions, of which there were already almost a dozen.

After the October Revolution, Bochkareva was forced to disband her battalion home, and she again headed to Petrograd. In winter, she was detained by the Bolsheviks on the way to Tomsk. After refusing to cooperate with the new authorities, she was accused of counter-revolutionary activities, and the matter almost reached the tribunal. Thanks to the help of one of her former colleagues, Bochkareva broke free and, dressed as a sister of mercy, traveled across the country to Vladivostok, from where she sailed on a campaign trip to the USA and Europe. American journalist Isaac Don Levin, based on Bochkareva’s stories, wrote a book about her life, which was published in 1919 under the title “Yashka” and was translated into several languages. In August 1918, Bochkareva returned to Russia. In 1919 she went to Omsk to see Kolchak. Aged and exhausted from wanderings, Maria Leontyevna came to ask for resignation, but the Supreme Ruler persuaded Bochkareva to continue serving. Maria made passionate speeches in two Omsk theaters and recruited 200 volunteers in two days. But the days itself Supreme ruler Russia and its armies were already numbered. Bochkareva’s detachment turned out to be of no use to anyone.

When the Red Army occupied Tomsk, Bochkareva herself came to the city commandant. The commandant took her undertaking not to leave the place and sent her home. On January 7, 1920, she was arrested and then sent to Krasnoyarsk. Bochkareva gave frank and ingenuous answers to all the investigator’s questions, which put the security officers in a difficult position. No clear evidence of her “counter-revolutionary activities” could be found; Bochkareva also did not participate in hostilities against the Reds. Ultimately, the special department of the 5th Army issued a resolution: “For more information, the case, along with the identity of the accused, should be sent to the Special Department of the Cheka in Moscow.”

Perhaps this promised a favorable outcome, especially since the resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars the death penalty in the RSFSR was in Once again cancelled. But, unfortunately, the deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka, I.P., arrived in Siberia. Pavlunovsky, endowed with extraordinary powers. The “representative of Moscow” did not understand what confused the local security officers in the case of Maria Leontyevna. On the resolution, he wrote a short resolution: “Bochkareva Maria Leontievna - shoot.” On May 16, 1920, the sentence was carried out. On the cover of the criminal case, the executioner wrote a note in blue pencil: “The fast has been fulfilled. 16th of May". But in the conclusion of the Russian prosecutor’s office on the rehabilitation of Bochkareva in 1992, it is said that there is no evidence of her execution. Russian biographer of Bochkareva S.V. Drokov believes that she was not shot: Isaac Don Levin rescued her from the Krasnoyarsk dungeons, and with him she went to Harbin. Having changed her last name, Bochkareva lived on the Chinese Eastern Railway until 1927, until she shared the fate of Russian families forcibly deported to Soviet Russia.

In the fall of 1917, there were about 5,000 female warriors in Russia. Their physical strength and abilities were similar to all women, ordinary women. There was nothing special about them. They just had to learn how to shoot and kill. The women trained 10 hours a day. Former peasants made up 40% of the battalion.

Women's Death Battalion soldiers receive a blessing before going into battle, 1917.

Russian women's battalions could not go unnoticed in the world. Journalists (such as Bessie Beatty, Rita Dorr and Louise Bryant from America) would interview the women and photograph them to later publish a book.

Female soldiers of the 1st Russian female death battalion, 1917

Maria Bochkareva and her Women's Battalion

Women's battalion from Petrograd. They drink tea and relax in the field camp.

Maria Bochkareva with Emmeline Pankhurst

Women's Death Battalion" in Tsarskoye Selo.

Maria Bochkareva is in the center, teaching shooting.

female recruits in Petrograd in 1917

Death Battalion, soldier on duty, Petrograd, 1917.

Drink tea. Petrograd 1917

These girls defended the Winter Palace.

1st Petrograd Women's Battalion

Commander of the Petrograd Military District, General Polovtsev and Maria Bochkareva in front of the formation of the women's battalion

Women's battalions- military formations consisting exclusively of women, created by the Provisional Government, mainly for the propaganda purpose of raising the patriotic spirit in the army and shaming male soldiers who refuse to fight by their own example. Despite this, they participated to a limited extent in the fighting of the First World War. One of the initiators of their creation was Maria Bochkareva.

History of origin

Senior non-commissioned officer M. L. Bochkareva, who was at the front with the Highest permission (since women were prohibited from being sent to units of the active army) from 1914 to 1917, thanks to her heroism, became a famous person. M. V. Rodzianko, who arrived in April on a propaganda trip to the Western Front, where Bochkareva served, specifically asked for a meeting with her and took her with him to Petrograd to campaign for “war to a victorious end” in the troops of the Petrograd garrison and among the delegates of the congress soldiers' deputies of the Petrograd Soviet. In a speech to the delegates of the congress, Bochkareva spoke for the first time about the creation of shock women’s “death battalions.” After this, she was invited to present her proposal at a meeting of the Provisional Government.

I was told that my idea was great, but I needed to report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Brusilov and consult with him. Together with Rodzianka, I went to Brusilov’s Headquarters... Brusilov told me in his office that you have hope for women and that the formation of a women’s battalion is the first in the world. Can't women disgrace Russia? I told Brusilov that I myself am not confident in women, but if you give me full authority, then I guarantee that my battalion will not disgrace Russia... Brusilov told me that he believes me and will try in every possible way to help in the formation of a women’s volunteer battalion .
M. L. Bochkareva

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 due to the intensifying processes of destruction Russian state the creation of these female shock troops was never completed.

Officially, as of October 1917, there were: 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion (infantry); Marine women's team (Oranienbaum); Cavalry 1st Petrograd Battalion of the Women's Military Union; Minsk separate guard squad of female volunteers. The first three battalions visited the front; only Bochkareva’s 1st battalion took part in the fighting.

Attitude towards women's battalions

As I wrote Russian historian S.A. Solntseva, the mass of soldiers and the Soviets received the “women’s death battalions” (as well as all other shock units) “with hostility.” The front-line shock workers did not call them anything other than “prostitutes.” At the beginning of July, the Petrograd Soviet demanded that all “women’s battalions” be disbanded as “unsuitable for service.” army service“- besides, the formation of such battalions was regarded by the Petrograd Soviet as “a secretive maneuver of the bourgeoisie, wanting to wage the war to a victorious end.”

Let us pay tribute to the memory of the brave. But... there is no place for a woman in the killing fields, where horror reigns, where there is blood, dirt and deprivation, where hearts harden and morals become terribly coarse. There are many ways of public and government service that are much more consistent with a woman’s calling.

Participation in the battles of the First World War

On June 27, 1917, a “battalion of death” consisting of two hundred people arrived in the active army - in the rear units of the 1st Siberian Army Corps of the 10th Army of the Western Front in the area of the Novospassky forest, north of the city of Molodechno, near Smorgon.

On July 9, 1917, according to the plans of the Headquarters, the Western Front was supposed to go on the offensive. On July 7, 1917, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock troops, received an order to take positions at the front near the town of Krevo. The "death battalion" was on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, 1917, he entered into battle for the first time, since the enemy, knowing about the plans of the Russian command, launched a preemptive strike and wedged itself into the location of the Russian troops. Over three days, the regiment repelled 14 attacks by German troops. Several times the battalion launched counterattacks and knocked the Germans out of the Russian positions occupied the day before. This is what Colonel V.I. Zakrzhevsky wrote in his report on the actions of the “death battalion”:

Bochkareva’s detachment behaved heroically in battle, always in the front line, serving on an equal basis with the soldiers. When the Germans attacked, on his own initiative he rushed as one into a counterattack; brought cartridges, went to secrets, and some to reconnaissance; With their work, the death squad set an example of bravery, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes is worthy of the title of warrior of the Russian revolutionary army.

Such heavy losses among female volunteers also had other consequences for the female battalions - on August 14, the new Commander-in-Chief, General L.G. Kornilov, by his order banned the creation of new female “death battalions” for combat use, and the already created units were ordered to be used only in auxiliary sectors ( security functions, communications, sanitary organizations). This led to the fact that many female volunteers who wanted to fight for Russia with weapons in their hands wrote statements asking to be dismissed from the “death units.”

Defense of the Provisional Government

One of the women's death battalions (1st Petrograd, under the command of the Life Guards Kexholm Regiment: 39 Staff Captain A.V. Loskov) in October, together with cadets and other units loyal to the oath of the Februaryists, took part in the defense of the Winter Palace , in which the Provisional Government was located.

On October 25 (November 7), the battalion, stationed near the Levashovo station of the Finnish Railway, was supposed to go to the Romanian front (according to the command’s plans, each of the formed women’s battalions was supposed to be sent to the front to raise the morale of male soldiers - one for each of the four fronts of the Eastern Front). But on October 24 (November 6), the battalion commander, Staff Captain Loskov, received orders to send the battalion to Petrograd “for a parade” (in fact, to protect the Provisional Government). Loskov, having learned about the real task and not wanting to drag his subordinates into a political confrontation, withdrew the entire battalion from Petrograd back to Levashovo, with the exception of the 2nd company (137 people).

The company took up defense on the first floor of the Winter Palace in the area to the right of the main gate to Millionnaya Street. At night, during the storming of the palace, the company surrendered, was disarmed and taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky, then the Grenadier Regiment, where with some shock troops "mistreated"- as a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma established, three shock workers were raped (although, perhaps, few dared to admit it), one committed suicide. On October 26 (November 8), the company was sent to its previous location in Levashovo.

Elimination of women's death battalions

Shape and appearance

The soldiers of Bochkareva’s Women’s Battalion wore the “Adam’s Head” symbol on their chevrons. Women underwent a medical examination and had their hair cut almost bald.

Songs

March forward, forward to battle,
Women soldiers!
The dashing sound calls you into battle,
The adversaries will tremble
From the song of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion

In culture

Writer Boris Akunin wrote the detective story “Battalion of Angels,” which takes place in 1917 in the women’s death battalion. Of the real prototypes, the book shows the daughter of Admiral Skrydlov (under the name Alexandra Shatskaya) and Maria Bochkareva.

In February 2015, the Russian feature film “