The Women's Battalions of Death
Russian Amazon Soldiers of World War One 1917
A look at the over 40,000 Russian women who served in non-combatant and in direct combat roles in the Armies of the Tsar and the Provisional Government in World War One
When World War One started in Russia, women were non-existent in the Russian Army. Immediately scores of young women were allowed to join and serve as nurses and ammunition carriers. The Russian Red Cross and the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos employed more than 48,000 women in these non-combatant roles. There were some notable exceptions.
Colonel Alexandra Koudasheva commanded the six hundred soldier 6th Ural Cossacks Regiment, on whose roles carried as many as a hundred women during the war. Starting the war as a twenty year old volunteer she was wounded twice and awarded the St George's Cross. Many other Cossack regiments had women warriors, many of them war widows. These included at least two more officers, Alexandra Lagareva and Olga Jehlweiser who served in Don Cossack units. Rifleman Valentina Petrova, of the 21st Siberian Sharpshooters also served in the same way and obtained a St Georges Cross of her own. Another Russian woman, Natalie Tychnini, dressed as a man and served on the Austrian front where she was wounded and captured. When she was recaptured by her forces her story was published and she was recognized. Zoya Smirnov and twelve schoolgirl classmates all joined the army disguised as men and fought as soldiers with only Zoya surviving to tell their tale. Not to be outdone, at least two princesses, Princess Sophie Alexandrovna Dolgorunaya, and Princess Eugenie Shakhovskaya volunteered to serve as fighter pilots.
When the March Revolution overthrew the Tsar, the Provisional Government was desperate for fresh military units to continue the war with Germany. On April 30, 1917 they ordered all female doctors under age 45 to report for military duty. This was followed by an order to form the Women's Legion of Death (Zhenskii batal'on smerti), in May. Fifteen hundred women were assembled in St Petersburg and Moscow and named respectively the 1st Russian Battalion and 2nd Moscow Battalions of the Russian Women's Legion of Death. Smaller units in Kiev and Odessa formed from cossack women amalgamated into the 3rd Kuban Battalion. At least a dozen other, smaller units were formed all over Russia. It is believed that as many as six thousand women came forward to be soldiers in this time period. The volunteers came from every branch and class of society. They included university students, society girls from some of the most noted old money noble families, professional women such as professors, working women and peasants. These included the well-known author Barbara Bukovishkoff as well as Princess Cherkasskaia. The leader of the Petrograd unit was Maria Bochkareva (Botchkareva). Referred to by her troops as Yashka, she was a tough Siberian professional soldier who had joined as a volunteer in 1915 with special permission from the Tsar himself. She served in the front lines fighting and living as any other soldier. A strong woman who was could lift in excess of two hundred pounds, she was wounded three times, promoted to sergeant and at the 1916 Battle of Lake Naroch led her unit in a counterattack after all of the officers had been killed.
She went onto lead the Woman's Battalion during the so-called Kerensky Offensive in 1917.
Sources
Stoff, Laurie They Fought for the Motherland: Russia's Women Soldiers in World War I and the Revolution. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas
Botchkareva, Maria. Yashka: My Life as Peasant, Exile, and Soldier. As told to Isaac Don Levine (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1919)
Stockdale, Melissa K My Death for the Motherland Is Happiness": Women, Patriotism, and Soldiering in Russia's Great War, 1914–1917, American Historical Review Vol 109, No1
Goldstein Joshua S War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa
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