In the early morning of July 8, 1917, an unusual revival reigned at the location of the 525th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Siberian Corps near the Bogushevsky forest in the Molodechno region near Smorgon. How, on this day, "women" should start fighting the Germans! Laughter, and more! A whole battalion of living women was sent - the soldiery made fun. "Women's Battalion of Death" - it's a circus! There was no longer any discipline at the front, order number one of the Provisional Government made itself felt, allowing the rank and file to choose their own commanders and discuss whether to obey the orders of officers or not. The commander of the women's battalion, in which iron discipline reigned, wrote this: "... never before had I met such a ragged, unbridled and demoralized chantrap, called soldiers."
Unexpectedly, most of the corps refuses to go into battle at all. Endless rallies begin - to fight or not to fight. There were no such questions for the women's battalion. They were volunteers and at any moment were ready to carry out the order. Although artillery preparation had already been carried out and the advanced lines of the Germans were pretty battered, no one was going to attack, except for the women's battalion. Meanwhile, they were approached by 75 officers who remained faithful to the oath, led by the commander of the 525th regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Ivanov, and asked to join the women's battalion.
Under desperate German fire, the united unit took the first line of German trenches from the summer and continued to advance on the edge of the Novospassky and Bogushevsky forests. Seeing the heroism of women and officers, the ashamed soldiers began to rise to the attack. As a result, the front was broken through for 4 versts and advanced 3.5 versts inland. But, occupying the German trenches, the soldiers stumble upon huge stocks of beer and vodka. And that's it. There was drunkenness and looting. The advance faltered. The regimental report said:
“... the companies became sensitive and fearful even to their own shots, not to mention enemy fire. A striking example of this in this regard is the lagging behind of the position on the western edge of the Novospassky forest, which was abandoned only from rare enemy fire. Even the victory won did not lead the soldiers to consciousness, they refused to remove the trophies, but, at the same time, many remained on the battlefield and robbed their own comrades. Crowds of soldiers loaded with German rubbish went to the rear, where during the battle there was a trade in German things. The women, judging by the reports, fought as follows: on July 7, the 525th Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Division received an order to take up positions in the Kreva area. The women's battalion, which was part of the regiment, was located on the right flank along with the 1st battalion. On the morning of July 9, the regiment went to the edge of the Novospassky forest and came under shelling. Within two days, he repelled 14 enemy attacks and, despite heavy machine-gun fire, went over to counterattacks several times. According to the officers of the regiment, the women's battalion behaved heroically in battle, all the time in the front line, serving on a par with the soldiers. His losses in the battles on July 9-10 were: 2 killed, 33 wounded and shell-shocked, 5 of them seriously, 2 were missing.
General A.I. Denikin later wrote: “What can I say about the “female army”? .. I know the fate of the Bochkareva battalion. He was greeted by the unbridled soldier environment mockingly, cynically. In Molodechno, where the battalion originally stationed, at night it had to put up a strong guard to guard the barracks ... Then the offensive began. 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, forgetting the technique of loose formation, huddled together - helpless, lonely in their area of the field, loosened by German bombs. They suffered losses. And the “heroes” partly returned back, partly did not leave the trenches at all.
Who is ensign Maria Bochkareva, by the way, who was wounded in that memorable battle near Molodechno and promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, and what kind of “women's death battalion” did she lead?
Maria Bochkareva
In 1919, Bochkareva's memoirs “Yashka. My life as a peasant, officer and exile. The book is not a reliable source, because it was written from the words of a not particularly literate woman - only at the age of 26 she was able to read syllables for the first time in her life, and then write her name. The book she studied from was a popular detective story in Russia about the American detective Nick Carter.
Maria Bochkareva (Frolkova) was born in July 1889 in the family of Leonty Semenovich and Olga Eleazarovna Frolkov, in the village of Nikolskoye, Kirillovsky district, Novgorod province. In addition to her, the family had two more daughters. When the girl was six years old, the family moved to Siberia to receive a land plot under the resettlement program. Marusya was given as a servant, first to look after the child, then to the shop. Maria is getting married at 16. There is an entry in the book of the Ascension Church dated January 22, 1905: “Afanasy Sergeevich Bochkarev, 23 years old, of the Orthodox faith, living in the Tomsk province, Tomsk district, Semiluzhskaya volost, the village of Bolshoe Kuskovo” married “the maiden Maria Leontiev Frolkova. .. of the Orthodox faith, living in the Tomsk province, Tomsk district, Novo-Kuskovskaya volost, the village of Ksenevsky.
Mary's marriage was not easy. Athanasius drank, she worked hard. Laid pavements in Irkutsk. At first she was a worker, then an assistant foreman. She can not stand her husband's binges, disagrees with him, falls seriously ill, loses her job. He is hired again as a servant.
Later, he meets Yankel Buk, falls in love with him, and he becomes her common-law husband. Buk, being considered a law-abiding peasant of the Chita district, was engaged in robbery along with Chinese hunghuz bandits. With this money, he opens a butcher's shop. Maria has a happy family life. She is unaware of her husband's criminal business. But in May 1912, Yakov (Yankel) Buk was arrested, he was waiting for exile or hard labor.
Maria decided to share the fate of her beloved, and in May 1913, together with him, she went on a stage to Yakutsk. The distribution list for the administrative exile Yankel Gershev Buk reports that by a decree of the Irkutsk governor-general dated August 18, 1912, he was deported “under the open supervision of the police to the Yakutsk region for the entire duration of martial law in the Trans-Baikal region. Arrived in Yakutsk on July 14, 1913. So that Buk would not be sent further, to Kolymsk, Maria gave herself up to the Yakut governor I. Kraft. Hardly experiencing her betrayal, she tried to poison herself. Kraft released Buk from prison, but demanded a new meeting with Bochkareva. The unfortunate woman told about the governor Buku, and he decided to kill him. But Buk was arrested in the governor's office and sent to the Yakut settlement of Amga. Mary followed him again. However, according to the memoirs, one can understand that the relationship between Mary and Jacob was very tense, he was able to beat or even kill his faithful wife for the slightest reason.
Now it is difficult to judge the truth of this information, perhaps the real facts of the life of this amazing woman are intertwined with the journalistic conjectures of the American authors of the book, who record the story of her life.
Volunteers
Meanwhile, in August 1914, the First World War broke out. Personal life did not work out, we do not know anything more about the fate of the robber Buk. Maria decided to go into the soldiers. She recalled: “My heart yearned there - into a boiling cauldron, to be baptized in fire, to be tempered in lava. The spirit of sacrifice has entered me. My country called me."
Arriving in Tomsk in November 1914, Bochkareva turned to the commander of the 25th reserve battalion with a request to enroll her as a volunteer. Naturally, she is denied. Then she sends a telegram to the tsar with the last money and, miraculously, receives the highest approval. In February 1915, the regiment formed in Siberia, together with the civilian Bochkareva, was assigned near Molodechno, to the 2nd Army. Bochkareva ended up on the front line of the 5th Army Corps, in the 28th Polotsk Regiment of the 7th Division. When asked by colleagues what to call her, short names and nicknames were then adopted in the army, Maria, remembering Buk, answered: “Yashka”. This name became her pseudonym for many years.
Maria turned out to be a brave soldier: she pulled the wounded from the battlefield, once pulled fifty people from the battlefield, she herself was wounded four times. Moreover, she herself went to bayonet attacks in the forward detachments! She was awarded the ranks of junior non-commissioned officer and senior non-commissioned officer and is entrusted with the command of a platoon. She was awarded two St. George's crosses, two St. George's medals and a medal "For Courage".
At the training camp in Levashovo
The February Revolution of 1917 brought confusion among the troops and endless glorification of rallies. At one of these events, Bochkareva, who had already become a legendary war hero, met the chairman of the IV State Duma, M.V. Rodzianko, who invites her to Petrograd. There, during a congress of soldiers' delegates in the Tauride Palace, she got the idea (or maybe she was prompted) to create a women's battalion. Known throughout the front, Bochkareva is invited by A.F. Kerensky, she discusses her project with General A.A. Brusilov. Maria spoke at the Mariinsky Palace with an appeal:
“Citizens, all who cherish the freedom and happiness of Russia, hasten to join our ranks, hurry, before it’s too late, to stop the decay of our dear homeland. By direct participation in hostilities, not sparing our lives, we, citizens, must raise the spirit of the army and, through educational and agitational work in its ranks, arouse a reasonable understanding of the duty of a free citizen to his homeland ... The following rules are obligatory for all members of the detachments:
1. Honor, freedom and the good of the motherland in the foreground;
2. Iron discipline;
3. Firmness and steadfastness of spirit and faith;
4. Courage and courage;
5. Accuracy, accuracy, perseverance and speed in the execution of orders;
6. Impeccable honesty and serious attitude to business;
7. Cheerfulness, politeness, kindness, friendliness, cleanliness and accuracy;
8. Respect for other people's opinions, complete trust in each other and the desire for nobility;
9. Quarrels and personal scores are unacceptable as degrading human dignity.
Bochkareva speaks:
“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 either orate or roam the streets. When Mother Russia dies, there is neither time nor need to manage the army with the help of committees. Although I am a simple Russian peasant woman, I know that only discipline can save the Russian army. In the battalion I propose, I will have full sole power, and seek obedience. Otherwise, there is no need to create a battalion.”
Soon her appeal was printed in the newspapers. The desire to enlist in the army among many women was great, soon about two thousand applications fell on the table to the founders of the women's battalion. 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; the second category is auxiliary units from women (communications, protection of railways); and, finally, the third - nurses in hospitals. According to the conditions of admission, any woman aged 16 years (with the permission of her parents) up to 40 years old could become a volunteer. At the same time, she had to have an educational qualification and pass a medical examination, which identified and screened out pregnant women.
Women passed a medical examination and cut their hair almost bald. On the first day, Bochkareva kicks out 30 people from the battalion, and 50 on the second. The usual reasons are giggles, flirting with male instructors, and failure to follow orders. She constantly encourages women to remember that they are soldiers and take their duties more seriously.
1st Petrograd Women's Battalion
The recruits were quite educated, in contrast to the bulk of the army, where only a few were literate. And here, up to 30 percent turned out to be female students (there were also Bestuzhev women, graduates of the most prestigious women's educational institution) and up to 40 percent had a secondary education. There were also sisters of mercy, and domestic servants, peasants and petty-bourgeois women, university graduates. There were also representatives of very famous families - Princess Tatueva from a famous Georgian family, Dubrovskaya - the daughter of a general, N.N. was a battalion adjutant. Skrydlova is the daughter of the Admiral of the Black Sea Fleet.
On June 21, the "Women's Battalion of Death" - as it was called because of its strict discipline and sincere desire not to spare life to defend the Motherland - was presented with a banner. General L.G. Kornilov presented Maria Bochkareva with a revolver and a saber with a golden hilt, Kerensky read out the order to promote her to ensign. 300 women from the initial recruitment went to the front lines on June 23, having been assigned to the 172nd division of the 1st Siberian Corps.
Similar women's volunteer units began to spring up everywhere. 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion, 2nd Moscow Women's Death Battalion, 3rd Kuban Women's Shock Battalion (infantry); Maritime women's team in Oranienbaum; Cavalry 1st Petrograd Battalion of the Women's Military Union; Minsk separate guard squad of female volunteers.
In early 1918, all these formations were disbanded by the Soviet government.
Maria Bochkareva lived for a few more fantastic years. After the collapse of the Provisional Government and the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, she, on the instructions of Lavr Kornilov, went to the United States to ask for help from the allies in the fight against the new government. A poorly literate woman did not understand the intricacies of big politics, but she sincerely loved her Motherland. She achieved a meeting with US President Woodrow Wilson, in the UK she met with King George the Fifth. Here is how she very naively later talks about this audience during interrogation at the Cheka:
“In the middle of August 1918, the king’s secretary arrived by car and handed me a piece of paper saying that the king of England was receiving me for 5 minutes, and I put on a military officer’s uniform, put on the orders I received in Russia and went with my translator Robinson to king's palace. I entered the hall, and a few minutes later the door opened and the King of England came out. He had a great resemblance to Tsar Nicholas II. I went to meet the king. He told me that he was very glad to see the second Jeanne de Arc and, as a friend of Russia, I greet you as a woman who has done a lot for Russia. I told him in reply that I considered it a great happiness to see the king of a free England. The king invited me to sit down, sat down opposite me. The king asked which party I belonged to and whom I believed; I said that I did not belong to any, but that I believed only in General Kornilov. The king told me the news that Kornilov had been killed; I told the king that I do not know who to believe now, and I do not think to fight in a civil war. The king told me: “You are a Russian officer”, I answered him that yes; the king then said that "it is your direct duty to go to Russia, to Arkhangelsk in four days, and I hope for you that you will work." I said to the King of England: "I obey!"
Energetic Maria travels to Arkhangelsk, Siberia, where she organizes both combat battalions and medical brigades, meets with Kolchak and other leaders of the White movement. But it is very difficult for a rather naive but honest woman to understand where the enemies are and where the friends are. Almost unbearable. The cunning British and other yesterday's allies are turning away from her.
When Soviet power was established in Tosca, Maria Bochkareva "Yashka" in December 1919 came to the commandant of the city, handed him a revolver and offered her services. The commandant let her go home. However, on January 7, 1920, she was arrested and imprisoned, from where she was transferred to Krasnoyarsk in March.
In the conclusion to the final protocol of her interrogation dated April 5, 1920, investigator Pobolotin noted that “the criminal activity of Bochkareva before the RSFSR was proved by the investigation ... Bochkareva, as an implacable and worst enemy of the workers’ and peasants’ republic, I believe to be placed at the disposal of the head of the special department of the Cheka of the 5th Army” .
On April 21, 1920, a decision was made: "For more information, the case, together with the identity of the accused, should be sent to the Special Department of the Cheka in Moscow." On May 15, this decision was revised and a new decision was made: to shoot Bochkareva.
March forward, forward to fight
Soldier women!
The dashing sound calls you to battle,
The adversaries will shudder!
(From the song of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion)
Vladimir Kazakov
Women and war - this combination of the incompatible was born at the very end of old Russia. The purpose of creating women's death battalions was to raise the patriotic spirit of the army and to shame the male soldiers who refuse to fight by their own example.
The initiator of the creation of the first women's battalion was the senior non-commissioned officer Maria Leontyevna Bochkareva, holder of the St. George Cross and one of the first Russian female officers. Maria was born in July 1889 in a peasant family. In 1905, she married 23-year-old Afanasy Bochkarev. Married life almost immediately went wrong, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunken husband without regret.
On August 1, 1914, Russia entered the World War. The country was seized by a patriotic upsurge, and Maria Bochkareva decided to go as a soldier in the army. In November 1914, in Tomsk, she turned 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. An annoying petitioner is given ironic advice - to turn directly to the emperor. 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 enlisted as a civilian soldier. Maria fearlessly went into bayonet attacks, pulled the wounded from the battlefield, was wounded several times. "For outstanding valor" she received the 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 initiated the formation of women's battalions. Enlisting the support of the Provisional Government, she spoke at the Tauride Palace with a call for the creation of women's battalions to defend the Fatherland. Soon her appeal was printed in the newspapers, and the whole country learned about the women's teams. On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony was held to present a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first women's military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." On the left flank of the detachment, in a brand new ensign uniform, stood an excited Maria: “I thought that all eyes were fixed on me alone. Archbishop Veniamin of Petrograd and Archbishop of Ufa admonished our battalion of death with the image of the Mother of God of Tikhvin. It's done, the front is ahead!
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 of Molodechno, near Smorgon (Belarus). On July 9, 1917, according to the plans of the Headquarters, the Western Front was to go on the offensive. On July 7, the 525th Kyuryuk-Darya Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division, which included shock women, received an order to take up positions at the front near the town of Krevo.
"Death Battalion" was on the right flank of the regiment. On July 8, 1917, he entered the battle for the first time, since the enemy, knowing about the plans of the Russian command, launched a preemptive strike and wedged into the location of the Russian troops. For three days the regiment repulsed 14 attacks of the German troops. Several times the battalion launched counterattacks and drove 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: “The Bochkareva detachment behaved heroically in battle, all the time in the front line, serving on a par with the soldiers. During the attack of the Germans, on his own initiative, he rushed as one in a counterattack; brought cartridges, went into secrets, and some went into reconnaissance; With their work, the death team set an example of courage, courage and calmness, raised the spirit of the soldiers and proved that each of these female heroes is worthy of the title of a warrior of the Russian revolutionary army. Even General Anton Denikin, the future leader of the White movement, who was very skeptical of such "surrogates of the army", recognized the outstanding prowess 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, forgetting the technique of loose fighting, huddled together - helpless, lonely in their area of the field, loosened by German bombs. They suffered losses. And the "heroes" partly returned back, partly did not leave the trenches at all.
Bochkareva is the first on the left.
There were 6 nurses, formerly actual doctors, factory workers, employees 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 worked in a hospital and came under fire. At the age of 15, they could only take a rifle in their hands and join the battalion. She thought she was safe here.
According to Bochkareva herself, out of 170 people who participated 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 her recovery, she received an order from the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Lavr Kornilov, to review the women's battalions, which numbered almost a dozen.
After the October Revolution, Bochkareva was forced to disband her battalion home, and she again went 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 case almost went to the tribunal. Thanks to the help of one of her former colleagues, Bochkareva broke free and, dressed in the outfit of a sister of mercy, traveled the whole country to Vladivostok, from where she sailed on a campaign trip to the USA and Europe. The American journalist Isaac Don Levin, based on the stories of Bochkareva, 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 Kolchak. Aged and exhausted by her wanderings, Maria Leontievna came to ask for her resignation, but the Supreme Ruler persuaded Bochkareva to continue her service. Maria delivered impassioned speeches in two Omsk theaters and recruited 200 volunteers in two days. But the days of the Supreme Ruler of Russia and his army 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 commandant of the city. The commandant took from her a written undertaking not to leave and let her go home. On January 7, 1920, she was arrested and then sent to Krasnoyarsk. Bochkareva gave frank and ingenuous answers to all the questions of the investigator, which put the Chekists 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 decision: "For more information, the case, together with the identity of the accused, should be sent to the Special Department of the Cheka in Moscow."
Perhaps this promised a favorable outcome as a result, especially since the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars abolished the death penalty in the RSFSR once again. But, unfortunately, the deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka, I.P., arrived in Siberia. Pavlunovsky, endowed with emergency powers. The "representative of Moscow" did not understand what confused the local Chekists in the case of Maria Leontievna. On the resolution, he wrote a brief resolution: "Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna - to be shot." On May 16, 1920, the sentence was carried out. On the cover of the criminal case, the executioner made an inscription in blue pencil: “Lent 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 Bochkareva S.V. Drokov believes that she was not shot: Isaac Don Levin rescued her from the Krasnoyarsk dungeons, and together with him she went to Harbin. Having changed her last name, Bochkareva lived on the CER until 1927, until she shared the fate of Russian families forcibly deported to Soviet Russia.
In the autumn 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. Women trained 10 hours a day. Former peasants made up 40% of the battalion.
Women's Death Battalion soldiers receive a blessing before being sent 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 women and take pictures of 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. Drink tea and relax in the field camp.
Maria Bochkareva with Emmeline Pankhurst
Women's Battalion of Death" in Tsarskoye Selo.
Maria Bochkareva 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 women's battalion
“Sometimes there are no names left from the heroes of bygone times ...” These lines of a popular song can be safely attributed to the fate of the creator of the first women's shock battalion, Maria Bochkareva.
During her lifetime, the fame of this amazing woman was so great that many stars of modern politics and show business could envy her. Reporters vying with each other interviewed her, illustrated magazines placed on the covers of her photographs and enthusiastic articles about the "woman hero". But, alas, a few years later, only Mayakovsky’s contemptuous lines about the “Bochkarev fools” who stupidly tried to defend the Winter Palace on the night of the October Revolution remained in the memory of compatriots ...
The fate of Maria Leontievna Bochkareva is akin to a love-adventure novel so fashionable today: the wife of a drunkard worker, a bandit's girlfriend, a servant in a brothel. Then an unexpected turn - a brave front-line soldier, non-commissioned officer and officer of the Russian army, one of the heroines of the First World War. A simple peasant woman, who only at the end of her life learned the basics of literacy, had a chance in her lifetime to meet with the head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky, the two supreme commanders of the Russian army - A.A. Brusilov and L.G. Kornilov. "Russian Joan of Arc" was officially received by US President Woodrow Wilson and English King George V.
Maria was born in July 1889 in Siberia in a peasant family. In 1905, she married 23-year-old Afanasy Bochkarev. Married life almost immediately went wrong, and Bochkareva broke up with her drunken husband without regret. It was then that she met her “fatal love” in the person of a certain Yankel (Yakov) Buk, who, according to documents, was listed as a peasant, but in reality he hunted robbery in a gang of “Hunghuz”. When Yakov was finally arrested, Bochkareva decided to share the fate of her beloved and, like a Decembrist, went after him along the stage to Yakutsk. But even in the settlement, Yakov continued to do the same things - he bought stolen goods and even participated in the attack on the post office.
To prevent Buk from being sent even further to Kolymsk, Maria agreed to give in to the harassment of the Yakut governor. But, unable to survive the betrayal, she tried to poison herself, and then told everything to Buk. Yakov was hardly tied up in the governor's office, where he went to kill the seducer, then he was again convicted and sent to the remote Yakut village of Amga. Maria was the only Russian woman here. True, her former relationship with her lover has not been restored ...
When the First World War began, Maria decided to finally break with Yankel and go as a soldier in the army. In November 1914, in Tomsk, she addresses the commander of the 25th reserve battalion. He invited her to go to the front as a sister of mercy, but Maria continued to insist on her own. An annoying petitioner is given ironic advice: to turn directly to the emperor. For the last eight rubles, Bochkareva sends a telegram to the highest name and soon, much to the surprise of the command, receives permission from Nicholas II. She was enlisted as a civilian soldier. According to an unwritten rule, the soldiers gave each other nicknames. Remembering Buk, Maria asks to call herself Yashka.
Yashka fearlessly went into bayonet attacks, pulled the wounded from the battlefield, was wounded several times. "For outstanding valor" she received the George Cross and three medals. She is awarded the rank of junior, and then senior non-commissioned officer.
The February revolution turned the world familiar to Mary: endless rallies were held at the positions, fraternization with the enemy began. Thanks to an unexpected acquaintance with the chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, M. V. Rodzianko, who came to the front to speak, Bochkareva ended up in Petrograd in early May 1917. Here she is trying to implement an unexpected bold idea - to create special military units from female volunteers and, together with them, continue to defend the Motherland. There were no such units before in any of the countries participating in the world war.
Bochkareva's initiative was approved by Minister of War A.F. Kerensky and Supreme Commander A.A. Brusilov. In their opinion, the "female factor" could have a positive moral impact on the decaying army. Supported the idea and patriotic women's public organizations. Over two thousand women responded to the appeal of Bochkareva and the Women's Union for Homeland Aid. By order of Kerensky, women soldiers were given a separate room on Torgovaya Street, ten experienced instructors were sent to teach them military formation and handling weapons. Food for the "drummers" was brought from the barracks of the 2nd Baltic Naval Crew located nearby.
Initially, it was even assumed that with the first detachment of female volunteers, Kerensky's wife Olga would go to the front as a sister of mercy, who pledged "if necessary, to remain in the trenches all the time." But, looking ahead, let's say that the “Madam Minister” never got to the trenches ...
Numerous publications and photo essays depicted the life of female soldiers in very idyllic colors. The reality, alas, was more prosaic and harsher. Maria established strict discipline in the battalion: rising at five in the morning, classes until ten in the evening, a short rest and a simple soldier's lunch. "Intelligent persons" soon began to complain that Bochkareva was too rude and "beats the faces like a real sergeant major of the old regime." In addition, she forbade any councils and committees to be organized in her battalion and party agitators to appear there. Supporters of "democratic reforms" even appealed to the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General P. A. Polovtsev, but in vain: "She (Bochkareva. - A. K.)," he wrote in his memoirs "Days of Eclipse," fiercely and expressively waving fist, says that the dissatisfied let them get out, that she wants to have a disciplined part.
In the end, a split occurred in the battalion being formed - about 300 women remained with Bochkareva, and the rest formed an independent shock battalion. Ironically, some of the "shock girls" expelled by Bochkareva "for easy behavior" became part of the new 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion, whose units on October 25, 1917 unsuccessfully defended the Winter Palace, the last residence of the Provisional Government.
But let's get back to the actual Bochkarevsky "drummers". On June 21, 1917, on the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral, a solemn ceremony was held to present a new military unit with a white banner with the inscription "The first women's military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." This day is captured in the second picture from the museum collection. On the left flank of the detachment, in a brand new uniform of an ensign (she was promoted to the first officer rank by a special order of Kerensky), an excited Maria stood: “I thought that all eyes were fixed on me alone. Archbishop Veniamin of Petrograd and Archbishop of Ufa admonished our battalion of death with the image of the Mother of God of Tikhvin. It's done, the front is ahead! Finally, the battalion marched solemnly through the streets of Petrograd, where it was greeted by thousands of people, although insulting cries were heard in the crowd.
On June 23, an unusual military unit went to the front. Life immediately dispelled romance. Initially, the battalion barracks even had to put sentries: the revolutionary soldiers molested the "women" with unequivocal proposals. The battalion received its baptism of fire in fierce battles with the Germans near Smorgon in early July 1917. One of the reports from the command said that "the detachment of Bochkareva behaved heroically in battle", set an example of "bravery, courage and calmness." And even one of the leaders of the white movement, General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, who was very skeptical of such "surrogates of the army", admitted that the women's battalion "valiantly went on the attack", not supported by other units.
In one of the battles on July 9, Bochkareva was shell-shocked and sent to the Petrograd hospital. After her recovery, she received an order from the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Lavr Kornilov, to review the women's battalions, which numbered almost a dozen. The review of the Moscow battalion showed its complete incompetence. Frustrated, Maria returned to her unit, firmly deciding for herself "not to take more women to the front, because I was disappointed in women."
After the October Revolution, Bochkareva, at the direction of the Soviet government, was forced to disperse her battalion home, and she herself again went to Petrograd. In Smolny, one of the representatives of the new regime (she herself claimed that it was Lenin or Trotsky) convinced Maria for a long time that she should stand up for the power of the working people. But Bochkareva stubbornly insisted that she was too exhausted and did not want to take part in the civil war. Almost the same - “I don’t accept military affairs during the civil war,” she told the White Guard commander in the North of Russia, General Marushevsky, a year later, when he tried to force Maria to form combat units. For the refusal, the angry general ordered the arrest of Bochkareva, and only the intervention of the British allies stopped him ...
However, Bochkareva still sided with the Whites. On behalf of General Kornilov, she, with forged documents in the clothes of a sister of mercy, made her way through Russia engulfed in civil war in order to make a propaganda trip to the USA and England in 1918. Later, already in the autumn of 1919, a meeting took place with another "supreme" - Admiral A. V. Kolchak. Aged and exhausted by her wanderings, Maria Leontyevna came to ask for her resignation, but he persuaded Bochkareva to continue her service and form a voluntary sanitary detachment. Maria delivered impassioned speeches in two Omsk theaters and recruited 200 volunteers in two days. But the days of the “Supreme Ruler of Russia” himself and his army were already numbered. Bochkareva's detachment turned out to be of no use to anyone.
When the Red Army occupied Tomsk, Bochkareva herself appeared to the commandant of the city, handed over a revolver to him and offered her cooperation to the Soviet government. The commandant took from her a written undertaking not to leave and let her go home. On Christmas night 1920, she was arrested and then sent to Krasnoyarsk. Bochkareva gave frank and ingenuous answers to all the questions of the investigator, which put the Chekists 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 decision: "For more information, the case, together with the identity of the accused, should be sent to the Special Department of the Cheka in Moscow."
Perhaps this promised a favorable outcome as a result, especially since the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars abolished the death penalty in the RSFSR once again. But, unfortunately, here in Siberia arrived the deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka, IP Pavlunovsky, endowed with emergency powers. The "representative of Moscow" did not understand what confused the local security officers in the case of our heroine. On the resolution, he wrote a brief resolution: "Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna - to be shot." On May 16, 1920, the sentence was carried out. "Russian Jeanne d, Arc" was the thirty-first year.
M.V. Vasiliev
1st Petrograd women's battalion in the events of 1917
annotation
The article reveals the history of the creation and training of the 1st Petrograd women's battalion. Through the prism of revolutionary events in Russia, the issues of the social composition, the size of this military unit are studied, and the history of its existence is built in chronological order.
Keywords
World War I, women's battalions, revolution, Petrograd, Winter Palace.
M.V. Vasilyev
1st Petrograd Women's Battalion in the Events of 1917
Abstract
The article reveals the story of creation and training of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion. Through the prism of revolutionary events in Russia examines issues of social structure, number of military units, in chronological sequence builds the story of his life.
key words
World War I, women's battalions, revolution, Petrograd, the Winter Palace.
The most tragic and difficult for the Russian army of all four years of the First World War was 1917. Fatigue from the war and an incredible overstrain, the February Revolution and socialist propaganda in military units and at the front did their job, the mass of soldiers seethed, more and more often getting out of control of the officers. But if the rear units and the capital's garrisons from the first days of the revolution were drawn into the whirlpool of political and revolutionary events, then at the front in the first months of the revolution, relative calm continued to be maintained. The masses of soldiers in wartime conditions were able to maintain relative discipline and took a wait-and-see attitude. The leader of the party of cadets P.N. Milyukov subsequently wrote: "that the army remained healthy for the first month or one and a half after the revolution." It was at the front that the Provisional Government hoped to gain support from the masses of soldiers and victoriously end the war. But the fiery revolutionary speeches of the agitators about brotherhood and equality were no longer enough; fundamentally new transformations were required in the army, capable of rallying the mass of soldiers and raising their morale. For these purposes, already in April-May 1917, proposals began to be received from different fronts on the creation of new military formations - shock battalions, formed on the principle of voluntariness. The idea received the support of the Provisional Government and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General A.A. Brusilov, who declared himself the first drummer and urged other front-line soldiers to follow his example. The Minister of War began to receive letters and telegrams from individuals and entire groups of military internal districts with a request to be transferred to the battalions that were being created. Sometimes the situation reached absurd moments, when even former deserters were found in the ranks of the drummers. From the end of May 1917, not only “shock”, “assault” and revolutionary battalions were created in the army, but also units formed according to some separate principle - exclusively from junkers or St. George Cavaliers, prisoners of the Austro-Hungarian army of Yugoslavs. A shock battalion of volunteer workers from the Obukhov factory was organized in the capital, shock battalions were formed from students, cadets, and even disabled soldiers. In mid-July 1917, the number of volunteers was about two thousand people, and by the end of October - already 50 thousand. In general, the formed "shock", "assault" and other battalions did not significantly change the situation at the front, representing the last hope of the Provisional Government, which, if necessary, counted on relying on the new shock detachments that were being formed.
In the inexorable stream of turbulent events of 1917, one of the most extravagant and, undoubtedly, politically motivated events was the organization of women's shock battalions and teams. A number of women's organizations came up with the initiative to create such detachments before the military department. In letters addressed to A.F. Kerensky pointed out that “Love for the Motherland and the desire to bring fresh intellectual forces into the ranks of our army, weary of a long war, calls us to join the ranks of the defenders of Russia. We will go into the army, forming exclusively female detachments, we hope by our example to raise the fallen energy of the troops. Various paramilitary public organizations played an important role in the formation of women's units, one of which was the Organizing Committee of Women's March Detachments. On May 20, he turned to A.F. Kerensky with a request to allow the formation of "exclusively female detachments." The same idea was supported by the military and naval minister A.I. Guchkov, who believed that the women's battalions were capable of "carrying the rest of the mass" of soldiers to the feat.
In Russian historiography, the fate of M.L. Bochkareva, the only female military team that took part in the hostilities at the front of the Molodechno region. The fate of other women's detachments is much less reflected, which is explained by the actual absence of archival documents and the extremely short period of their existence. If the detachment of M.L. Bochkareva in the amount of 200 people was formed mainly from women who had already taken part in hostilities in various sectors of the front or Cossack women with experience in using weapons, then other volunteers arriving in Petrograd still needed to be taught the basics of military art. For these purposes, all women who signed up for the women's volunteer battalion were sent to a military camp near the Levashovo station of the Finnish Railway, where on August 5, 1917, their military training began.
Speaking of women's battalions, it is necessary to dwell on their appearance and social composition. One of the striking characteristic features of these teams was the intelligence of female volunteers, of which about 30% turned out to be female students (including graduates of the "Bestuzhev" courses of the Alexandrovskaya Women's Gymnasium, which was considered one of the most prestigious women's educational institutions in Russia), and up to 40% had secondary education. Women's battalions united women of completely different professions and social status. Military uniforms were worn by university graduates, teachers, sisters of mercy and domestic servants, peasant women and bourgeois women. Shock worker of the 1st Petrograd Battalion M. Bocharnikova wrote in her memoirs: “The first impression was that I seemed to be in a meadow dotted with bright flowers. Bright sundresses of peasant women, kerchiefs of sisters of mercy, multi-colored chintz dresses of factory workers, elegant dresses of young ladies from society, modest outfits of city employees, maids, nannies ... There was just no one here! ... A hefty woman of thirty years of age strongly sticks out her breasts, which are already terrible in size, and her thin neighbor is not at all visible behind her figure. The nose is up. He throws his hands forward with ferocity. And there, further on, grinning, every minute bending her head to look at her legs, with which she strenuously beats her step, apparently a bourgeois swims. Some march like real soldiers. Almost without touching the ground, as if dancing, a pretty blonde moves. Isn't it a ballerina? .
Speaking about such a diverse social composition of women's formations, it is necessary to pay attention to the question of what made women voluntarily join the army and become soldiers. Answering this question, we must understand that many women sincerely believed that by their act they could change the mood in the soldiers' ranks, shame them, and thereby help bring victory closer. The very atmosphere of the revolutionary upsurge and democratic transformations in the country in 1917 only contributed to the emergence of such idealistic positions. Others simply fled from the troubles and problems of a hard and hopeless life, seeing in the army a way to change something in their existence for the better. One of the strikers commented on her entry into the battalion in the following way: “And I from my (husband - M.V.) ran away. Oh, and beat me, damn it! Pulled out half of my hair. As soon as I heard that women were being taken as soldiers, I ran away from him and signed up. He went to complain, and the commissar said to him: “Now, after the Left Revolution, you weakling. You don’t dare to touch a woman if she goes to the front to defend Russia! So she left." An American writer and journalist who worked in Russia at that time and communicated with the shock women of the Bochkareva detachment wrote: “Many went to the battalion because they sincerely believed that the honor and very existence of Russia were under threat, and that her salvation was human self-sacrifice. Some, like Bochkareva herself from the Siberian village, one day came to the conclusion that this was better than the bleak and hard life they lived. Personal suffering has brought some of them to the front lines. One of these girls, a Japanese woman, whom I asked about what brought her to the battalion, tragically said: “There are so many reasons that I probably won’t talk about them.” Another American journalist Rita Dorr in her publications cited another case from the life of volunteers: “One of the nineteen-year-old girls, a Cossack girl, pretty, with dark eyes, was completely abandoned to her fate after her father and two brothers died in battle, and her mother died during the shelling of the hospital where she worked. Bochkareva's battalion seemed to her a safe place, and a rifle - the best way to protect. Other women utopically dreamed of showing heroism on the battlefield and becoming famous, and even making a career in the military - the ideas of feminism were also fueled by the revolution. There were a huge number of reasons for the activation of the women's movement in 1917, each volunteer had her own fate and her own motives in order to decide on such a desperate step.
However, let us return to the Levashovsky military field camp, set up on the outskirts of Petrograd. For a month and a half, the women of the 1st Petrograd shock battalion began military everyday life with a tough schedule and discipline, drill on the parade ground, the study of weapons and target shooting. The first officers sent to the battalion as instructors, in fact, did not engage in combat training. “The company commander, who was invariably accompanied by some “mademoiselle”, apparently “not heavy” behavior, did more with her than with us. The half-company warrant officer Kurochkin, nicknamed the wet chicken, is a match for him. He, like the first one, was fired, which we were incredibly happy about, ”recalled M. Bocharnikova. Discipline and order were established only with the arrival of new company commanders, officers of the Nevsky Regiment, Lieutenant V.A. Somov, Lieutenant O.K. Faithful and warrant officer of the Semenovsky regiment K. Bolshakov. The assistants to the company commanders were also replaced. So, the sergeant major of the second company, an intelligent lady completely unsuitable for this position, was replaced by a 23-year-old Don Cossack Maria Kochereshko. Having managed to take part in the battles at the front, having two wounds, the holder of the St. George Cross with a forelock under K. Kryuchkov, the Cossack M. Kochereshko immediately brought order and discipline to the company.
However, in addition to military and drill training and other soldier's routine, there was also time for various kinds of fun in the Levashovsky camp. So, once the company commander decided to arrange a game of leapfrog, otherwise called "goats and rams." At a distance of ten paces, some stood bent over, while others had to jump over them with a run. “I have never seen a man laugh like that in my life! Bending over with a groan, he clutched at his stomach, like a woman in labor before childbirth, and tears flowed from his eyes. Yes, and there was a reason! One, instead of jumping over, gave in with her knee, and both flew to the ground. The second one mounted with a swing, and those suffered the same fate. The third, without jumping, got stuck on them, and while one plowed the ground with its nose, the second, flattened like a swallow, flew over its head. We ourselves were so weak from laughter that we could not run, ”recalled a contemporary.
Despite the patriotic impulse and sincere readiness of women to serve Russia, the Petrograd battalion, like other women's formations, was completely unprepared for military service, and even more so for military operations, and at best could be used as a security team. At firing practice, when a volley was fired by the entire battalion, only 28 bullets hit the targets, but the shooters killed a horse that came out from behind a hillock and broke a window in a train passing in the distance. Fortunately, there were no human casualties. Situations sometimes reached ridiculous oddities, when sentry volunteers fired at crickets at night, sincerely believing that someone was sneaking up on them with a cigarette, or enthusiastically saluted "generals in uniforms embroidered with gold," who in reality turned out to be just Petrograd porters. The officers, sometimes checking the women's guards, took away rifles or bolts, which the guards themselves naively gave away. Many women subsequently admitted that under the phrase “standing on duty, no one should be given personal weapons,” they understood the whole world, with the exception of their officers.
Despite the abundance of similar moments in the life of the battalion, its preparation was completed by October. The Main Directorate of the General Staff reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief that the formation of the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion was completed, and it could be sent to the army on October 25. It was supposed to be sent to the Romanian front. However, further events in Petrograd dramatically changed the plans of the command. On October 24, the women's battalion was instructed to board the wagons and arrive at Palace Square for a solemn parade. On the eve of the departure, Lieutenant Somov, secretly from others, rehearsed the passage of the company, bristling bayonets. The non-commissioned officer of the second company recalled: “... they cleaned themselves, washed themselves and wrote farewell letters home. A few days before the performance, the battalion commander tested our knowledge. The battalion was lined up in the field, and the 1st company under his command did all the rebuilding, scattered into a chain, made dashes and went on the attack. He was satisfied with the result of the training. October 24th arrived. Loaded into the wagon, and mounted scouts on foot, we moved to Petrograd with songs. From one car rushed “Hey, well, you guys! ..” with a dashing refrain of “I-ha-ha, i-ha-ha!”. From the second - "Dust swirls along the way ...". The sad story of an orphan Cossack returning from a raid. From the third - daring "Oh, let the river flow on the sand, yes!". They called to each other like roosters at dawn. At each stop, passengers and employees poured out onto the platform to listen to our singing. Feeling the tense situation in Petrograd, the Provisional Government headed by A.F. Kerensky used the women's battalion blindly, planning, if necessary, to enlist it to fight the Bolsheviks. That is why, immediately upon arrival in Petrograd, the women were given clips of cartridges in case riots broke out during the parade. It should be noted that the solemn parade on Palace Square did take place, and Kerensky himself greeted the shock women. At this time, the real purpose of the battalion's stay in the capital became clear. Having soberly assessed the situation, the battalion commander, staff captain A.V. Loskov decided to withdraw the women's battalion from the capital, realizing the futility of his participation in revolutionary events. Minister of Railways A.V. Liverovsky in his diary recorded a conversation between the Minister of Trade and Industry A.I. Konovalov and the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Petrograd Military District Ya.G. Bagratuni: Konovalov - “Why did yesterday (October 24 - M.V. ) were women's battalions withdrawn from Petrograd?"; Bagratuni - “According to the conditions of quartering. In addition, I owed that they willingly go to the front, but do not want to interfere in the political struggle. Most of the battalion was withdrawn from Petrograd in the capital. The Provisional Government managed to keep only the 2nd company of the battalion, consisting of 137 people, under the pretext of delivering gasoline from the Nobel plant. “The 1st company went straight to the station, and ours was led back to the square with the right shoulder. We see how the entire battalion, having passed through a ceremonial march, also follows the 1st company to the station. The area is empty. We are ordered to make rifles into "goats". From somewhere there was a rumor that at the plant, it seems, "Nobel", the workers rebelled and we were sent there to requisition gasoline. Dissatisfied voices are heard: "Our business is the front, and not to interfere in urban unrest." The command is given: "In the gun!" We disassemble the rifles, and they lead us to the gates of the palace, ”M. Bocharnikova recalled in her memoirs. On the evening of October 24, the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District ordered the company commander, Lieutenant V.A. Send Somov to guard the bridges: Nikolaevsky - half a platoon, Dvortsovsky - half a platoon and Liteiny - a platoon. The task of the shock women was to facilitate the construction of bridges in order to cut off the working areas from the center and prevent any attempt to build them again with fire. However, these actions of the junkers and the 2nd company of the women's battalion ended in failure. The revolutionary sailors and Red Guards firmly held the bridges. By the evening of October 25, female shock workers, together with the junkers, took part in a skirmish defending the barricades near the Winter Palace. “... we receive an order to go to the barricades built by the junkers in front of the Winter Palace. At the gate, high above the ground, a lantern burns. "Junkers, break the lantern!" Rocks flew, glass shattered with a clatter. A successfully thrown stone extinguished the lamp. Complete darkness. You can hardly tell your neighbor. We scatter to the right behind the barricade, mingling with the junkers. As we later learned, Kerensky secretly left for the scooters, leaving Minister Konovalov and Dr. Kishkin in his place, but the scooters had already "blushed" and were taking part in the attack on the palace. At nine o'clock the Bolsheviks issued an ultimatum to surrender, which was rejected. At 9 o'clock suddenly thundered "Hurrah!" ahead. The Bolsheviks went on the attack. In one minute, everything around rumbled. Rifle fire merged with machine-gun bursts. A gun swelled from the Aurora. The junkers and I, standing behind the barricade, answered with frequent fire. I looked right and left. A continuous band of flashing lights, as if hundreds of fireflies fluttered. Sometimes the silhouette of someone's head loomed. The attack faltered. The enemy is down. The shooting calmed down, then flared up with renewed vigor. At this time, complete confusion and confusion was going on in the palace itself, some teams continued to fight, others laid down their arms and declared neutrality, conflicting information came from everywhere. No one dared to take over the overall leadership of the defense. Almost all participants in the defense recalled the orgy that took place in the Winter Palace on the last day of the Provisional Government. At twelve o'clock in the morning on October 25, the women's battalion was ordered to withdraw to the Palace. In her memoirs, striker M. Bocharnikova wrote: “The women’s battalion [was ordered] to return to the building!” — swept through the chain. We go into the courtyard, and the huge gates are closed with a chain. I was sure that the whole company was in the building. But from the letters of Mr. Zurov I learned, from the words of the participants in the battle, that the second half-company defended the door. And when the junkers laid down their arms on the barricade, the volunteers still held out. How the Reds broke in there and what happened, I don’t know. We are taken to an empty room on the second floor. “I'll go and find out about further orders,” the company commander says, heading for the door. The commander does not return for a long time. The shooting stopped. A lieutenant appears at the door. The face is gloomy. "The palace has fallen. We were ordered to hand over our weapons." His words echoed in the soul like a death knell ... ". After the defenders of the Winter Palace laid down their arms, the women were sent to the Pavlovsk barracks, and the next day to the Levashovo station. The women's battalion, after returning to the barracks of the officers, was again armed from the reserves of the arsenal and dug in, preparing for defense. And only the lack of the required amount of ammunition saved the battalion from complete destruction in a shootout with revolutionary soldiers. On October 30, the battalion was disarmed by the Red Army soldiers who arrived in Levashovo. 891 rifles, 4 machine guns, 24 checkers and 20 revolvers, as well as various equipment were seized. Women scouts delivered boxes of ammunition half an hour after the Red Guards left the military camp.
After the disarmament, the 1st Petrograd Women's Battalion continued to exist for another two months, by inertia, discipline was maintained, guards were posted and various outfits were performed. Losing all hope of being sent to the front, the volunteers began to go home or make their way to the front. It is known that some of the women still managed to get to the front in various units, mostly in the women's company of the Turkestan division, some began to care for the wounded in military hospitals. Most of the personnel of the battalion dispersed in various directions in November-December 1917. The Petrograd battalion finally ceased to exist on January 10, 1918, when staff captain A.V. Loskov submitted a report on the dissolution of the battalion and the surrender of property to the commissariat and the headquarters of the Red Guard.
The history of volunteer shock battalions (not only women's) has developed in such a way that in the last months of the existence of the Provisional Government, it was they who became the main lever for maintaining order and discipline, thereby causing a storm of indignation and hatred from the rest of the soldier mass against them. In the troops, the bulk of the lower ranks perceived volunteers negatively, and often hostilely, while the command staff saw in them the only hope for a change in the mood of the army and the possibility of bringing the war to a victorious end. The hostility of the soldiers was due, among other things, to the fact that the Kornilov shock regiment and many shock battalions, especially the cadet ones, in addition to or instead of direct combat use, were used by the command as barrage detachments and punitive teams. Soldiers' hatred for units of this type naturally spread to the women's battalions, many soldiers demanded the arrest and even execution of the "Kornilovka bitches." The women's battalions were never able to fulfill their main role - the awakening of patriotism and fighting spirit on the fronts. In the mass of soldiers, the creation of women's military teams evoked only a dull feeling of irritation and hatred. Despite the sincere impulse of women to serve the Fatherland and their willingness to die for it, women's military teams remained just a bright surrogate for the degrading army of 1917.
Gailesh K.I. Protection of the Winter Palace // Resistance to Bolshevism. 1917-1918 M., 2001. S. 9-15; Sinegub A.P. Protection of the Winter Palace (October 25 - November 7, 1917) // Resistance to Bolshevism. 1917 - 1918 pp. 21-119; Pryussing O.G. Protection of the Winter Palace // Military Story. 1956. No. 20. September; Malyantovich P.N. In the Winter Palace on October 25-26, 1917 // Past. 1918. No. 12. pp. 111-141.
Vasiliev M.V. Member of the Russian Association of World War I Historians.
