There are so many legends about this amazing woman that it is difficult to assert with certainty what is true and what is fiction. But it is reliably known that the simple peasant woman, only at the end of her life studying to read and write, King of England George V, during a personal audience, called “Russian Joan of Arc”, and American President W. Wilson received with honor at the White House. Her name is Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna. Fate prepared her the honor of becoming the first female officer of the Russian army.
Childhood, youth and only love
The future heroine of the female battalion was born into a simple peasant family in the village of Nikolskaya in the Novgorod province. She was the third child of her parents. They lived from hand to mouth and, in order to somehow improve their distress, moved to Siberia, where the government in those years launched a program to help immigrants. But the hopes did not materialize, and in order to get the extra eater out of her hands, Mary was soon married off to an unloved person, and besides, a drunkard. From him she got the surname - Bochkareva.
Very soon, a young woman forever breaks up with her spouse, disgusted with her, and begins a free life. Then she meets her first and last love in her life. Unfortunately, Maria was fatally unlucky with the men: if the first was a drunkard, the second turned out to be a real gangster who took part in the robberies along with a gang of "hunhuzes" - immigrants from China and Manchuria. But, as they say, love is evil ... His name was Yankel (Jacob) Buk. When he was finally arrested and taken to court in Yakutsk, Maria Bochkareva went after him, like the wives of the Decembrists.
But the desperate Yankel was incorrigible and even in the settlement he bought up stolen goods, and later robberies. To protect her beloved from imminent hard labor, Mary was forced to yield to the harassment of the local governor, but she herself could not survive this forced betrayal - she tried to poison herself. The story of her love ended sadly: Beech, learning about what happened, in the heat of jealousy attempted to assassinate the governor. He was tried and deported to a remote, remote place. Maria didn’t see him again.
To the front with the personal permission of the emperor
The news of the outbreak of the First World War caused an unprecedented patriotic upsurge in Russian society. Thousands of volunteers went to the front. Maria Bochkareva followed their example. The story of her enlistment in the army is very unusual. Turning in November 1914 to the commander of the reserve battalion, located in Tomsk, she received a refusal with ironic advice to ask permission personally from the emperor sovereign. Contrary to the expectation of a battalion commander, she did write a petition in the highest name. Imagine the general amazement when, after some time, a positive answer came, signed by Nicholas II personally.
After a short training course, in February 1915, Maria Bochkareva appeared at the front as a civilian soldier - in those years there was such a status of military personnel. Taking up this non-female affair, she, along with the men, fearlessly went to bayonet attacks, pulled out the wounded from under the fire and showed genuine heroism. Here, she was entrenched with the nickname Yashka, which she herself chose in memory of her lover - Yakov Buka. In her life there were two men - a husband and a lover. From the first she remained a surname, from the second - a nickname.
When the company commander was killed in March 1916, Mary, stepping in his place, raised the soldiers on the offensive, which became fatal for the enemy. For her courage Bochkareva was awarded the St. George Cross and three medals, and soon she was promoted to junior non-commissioned officer. Being on the front line, she was repeatedly wounded, but remained in service, and only a severe wound in the thigh led Mary to the hospital, where she lay for four months.
Creation of the first ever female battalion
Returning to the position, Maria Bochkareva - the St. George Knight and a recognized fighter - found her regiment in a state of complete decay. During its absence, the February Revolution took place, and endless rallies took place among the soldiers, alternating fraternities with the "Germans." Deeply indignant at this, Mary was looking for an opportunity to influence what was happening. Soon, such a case presented itself.
For agitation, the chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma M. Rodzianko arrived at the front. With his support, Bochkareva in early March ended up in Petrograd, where she embarked on the realization of her long-standing dream - the creation of military units from patriotic women volunteers who were ready to defend the Motherland. In this endeavor, she met the support of the Minister of War of the Provisional Government A. Kerensky and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief General A. Brusilov.
In response to the call of Maria Bochkareva, more than two thousand Russians expressed a desire to join the ranks of the created unit with arms in hand. It is noteworthy that among them a significant part were educated women - students and graduates of the Bestuzhev courses, and a third of them had secondary education. None of the men's units could boast of such indicators at that time. Among the “drummers” - such a name was attached to them - there were representatives of all walks of life - from peasant women to aristocrats, bearing the most famous and famous surnames in Russia.
The commander of the female battalion, Maria Bochkareva, established among the subordinates iron discipline and strict subordination. The climb was at five in the morning, and all day until ten in the evening it was filled with endless activities, interrupted only by a short rest. Many women, mostly from wealthy families, had difficulty getting used to simple soldier's food and a strict schedule. But this was not their greatest difficulty.
It is known that soon the Commander-in-Chief began to receive complaints about rudeness and arbitrariness on the part of Bochkareva. Indicated even facts of assault. In addition, Maria strictly forbade political agitators, representatives of various party organizations to appear in the location of her battalion, and this was a direct violation of the rules established by the February Revolution. As a result of widespread discontent, two hundred and fifty “shockmen” left Bochkareva and joined another formation.
Sending to the front
And then came the long-awaited day when, on June 21, 1917, on the square in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral, with a gathering of thousands of people, the new military unit received a military banner. It was written on it: "The first female death squad of Maria Bochkareva." Needless to say, how much excitement did the mistress of the celebration herself, standing on the right flank in the new uniform, endure? The day before, the rank of ensign was granted to her, and Maria, the first female officer in the Russian army, was rightfully the heroine of that day.
But this is a feature of all holidays - they are replaced by everyday life. So the celebrations at St. Isaac's Cathedral were replaced by a gray and by no means romantic trench life. Young defenders of the Fatherland are faced with a reality that they had no idea about before. They were among the degraded and morally decomposed soldiers. Bochkareva herself in her memoirs calls the soldier "an unbridled chantrap." To protect women from possible violence, they even had to put sentries near the barracks.
However, after the very first military operation, in which Maria Bochkareva’s battalion participated, the “strikers”, showing courage worthy of real fighters, were forced to respect themselves. This happened in early July 1917 near Smurgan. After such a heroic beginning, even such an opponent of the participation of female units in hostilities, as General A.I. Kornilov, was forced to change his mind.
Hospital in Petrograd and inspection of new units
The female battalion participated in battles along with all other units and, like them, suffered losses. Having received a severe concussion in one of the battles that took place on July 9, Maria Bochkareva was sent for treatment to Petrograd. During her stay at the front in the capital, the female patriotic movement she began began to develop widely. New battalions were formed, staffed from voluntary defenders of the Fatherland.
When Bochkareva was discharged from the hospital, by order of the newly appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief L. Kornilov, she was instructed to inspect these units. The verification results were very disappointing. None of the battalions represented a sufficiently combat-ready unit. However, the situation of revolutionary turmoil that reigned in the capital hardly made it possible to achieve a positive result in a short time, and this had to be put up with.
Soon, Maria Bochkareva returns to her unit. But since that time, her organizational ardor has cooled somewhat. She repeatedly stated that she was disappointed in women and henceforth does not consider it appropriate to take them to the front - "sisses and crybaby." It is likely that her demands on her subordinates were extremely overstated, and what she could do as a combat officer went beyond the capabilities of ordinary women. Cavalier of the George Cross, Maria Bochkareva was by then promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
Features of the "Women's Death Battalion"
Since the chronology of the events described is close to the famous episode of the defense of the last residence of the Provisional Government (the Winter Palace), we should dwell in more detail on what the military unit that Maria Bochkareva created at that time was. The “Women's Death Battalion,” as they call it, in accordance with the law, was considered an independent military unit and was equal in status to a regiment.
The total number of female soldiers was one thousand people. The officers were fully manned, all of whom were experienced commanders who had gone through the fronts of the First World War. The battalion was stationed at the Levashovo station, where the necessary conditions were created for training. In the arrangement of the unit, any campaigning and party work was categorically prohibited.
The battalion should not have any political coloring. Its purpose was to protect the Fatherland from external enemies, and not to participate in internal political conflicts. The commander of the battalion was, as mentioned above, Maria Bochkareva. Her biography is inseparable from this combat formation. In the fall, everyone expected an early departure to the front, but something else happened.
Defense of the Winter Palace
Unexpectedly, an order came to one of the battalion units to arrive in Petrograd on October 24 to participate in the parade. In reality, this was only an excuse for attracting “drummers” to defend the Winter Palace from the Bolsheviks who began the armed uprising. At that time, the palace garrison consisted of scattered units of Cossacks and junkers of various military schools and did not constitute any serious military force.
Women who arrived and stayed in the empty premises of the former royal residence were entrusted with the defense of the southeast wing of the building from Palace Square. On the first day they managed to push out the detachment of the Red Guards and take control of the Nikolaev Bridge. However, the very next day, October 25, the palace building was completely surrounded by the troops of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and the exchange of fire soon began. From that moment, the defenders of the Winter Palace, not wanting to die for the Provisional Government, began to leave their positions.
The cadets of the Mikhailovsky School were the first to leave, and the Cossacks followed. The women held out the longest and only by ten o'clock in the evening did they send the parliamentarians with a statement of surrender and a request to let them out of the palace. They were given the opportunity to leave, but subject to complete disarmament. After some time, the entire female unit was stationed in the barracks of the Pavlovsky Reserve Regiment, and then sent to the place of its permanent deployment in Levashovo.
The seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and subsequent events
After the October armed coup, a decision was made to liquidate the women's battalion. However, returning home in military uniform was too dangerous. With the help of the “Committee for Public Security” in Petrograd, women managed to get civilian clothes and in this way got to their homes.
It is absolutely reliably known that during the period of events discussed, Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna was at the front and did not take any personal part in them. This is documented. However, the myth that she commanded the defenders of the Winter Palace was firmly rooted. Even in the famous film by S. Eisenstein “October” in one of the characters you can easily recognize her image.
The further fate of this woman was very difficult. When the civil war broke out, the Russian Zhanna dARk - Maria Bochkareva - was literally between two fires. Having heard about her authority among soldiers and combat skills, both warring parties tried to attract Mary to their ranks. At first, in Smolny, senior representatives of the new government (according to her, Lenin and Trotsky) persuaded a woman to take command of one of the Red Guard units.
Then General Marushevsky, who commanded the White Guard forces in the north of the country, tried to persuade her to cooperate and instructed Bochkareva to form military units. But in both cases, she refused: it was one thing to fight with foreigners and defend the Motherland, and quite another to raise a hand against a compatriot. Her refusal was absolutely categorical, for which Mary almost paid the price for freedom - the furious general ordered her to be arrested, but, fortunately, the English allies entered.
Mary's overseas tour
Her further fate takes the most unexpected turn - following the instructions of General Kornilov, Bochkarev goes to America and England with the purpose of agitation. She went on this voyage, dressed in the form of a sister of mercy and having false documents with her. It is hard to believe, but this simple peasant woman, barely able to read and write, was very worthy of herself at a dinner at the White House, where she was invited by President Wilson on American Independence Day. She was not at all embarrassed at the audience that King of England George V. arranged for her . Mary arrived in Buckingham Palace in officer uniform and with all the military decorations. It was the English monarch who called her Russian Joan of Arc.
Of all the questions posed by Bochkareva to the heads of state, she found it difficult to answer only one: is she for the reds or for the whites? This question did not make sense to her. For Mary, both were brothers, and the civil war caused her only deep grief. During her stay in America, Bochkareva dictated to one of the Russian emigrants her memories, which he edited and published under the name "Yashka" - the front-line nickname Bochkareva. The book went out of print in 1919 and immediately became a bestseller.
Last assignment
Soon, Maria returned to Russia, captured by the civil war. She carried out her campaign mission, but categorically refused to take up arms, which caused a breakdown in relations with the command of the Arkhangelsk Front. The former enthusiastic veneration was replaced by a cold condemnation. The experiences connected with this caused deep depression, which Maria tried to find a way out of in alcohol. She sank noticeably, and the command sent her away from the front, in the rear city of Tomsk.
Here Bochkareva was destined for the last time to serve the Fatherland - after the persuasion of the High Admiral A.V. Kolchak, she agreed to form a volunteer sanitary detachment. Speaking to numerous audiences, Maria in a short time managed to attract more than two hundred volunteers to her ranks. But the rapid offensive of the Reds prevented this matter from being brought to an end.
Legendary life
When Tomsk was captured by the Bolsheviks, Bochkareva voluntarily appeared in the commandant’s office and surrendered her weapon. The new authorities refused her offer of cooperation. After a while, she was arrested and sent to Krasnoyarsk. Investigators of the Special Department were confused, since it was difficult to bring any charges against her - Maria did not participate in the hostilities against the Reds. But, to her misfortune, the deputy head of the special section of the Cheka I.P. Pavlunovsky, a stupid and ruthless executioner, arrived in the city from Moscow. Without delving into the essence of the matter, he gave the order - to shoot, which was executed immediately. The death of Maria Bochkareva occurred on May 16, 1919.
But the life of this amazing woman was so unusual that her death itself gave rise to many legends. It is not known exactly where the grave of Maria Leontyevna Bochkareva is located, and this gave rise to rumors that she miraculously escaped execution and lived under a false name until the end of the forties. There is another extraordinary story generated by her death.
It is based on the question: “What was Maria Bochkareva shot for?”, Because they could not be directly accused of her. In response to this, another legend claims that the brave Yashka hid American gold in Tomsk and refused to tell the Bolsheviks his whereabouts. There are a number of incredible stories. But the main legend is, of course, Maria Bochkareva herself, whose biography could serve as the plot for the most exciting novel.