There are so many legends about this amazing woman that it is difficult to say with complete certainty what is true and what is fiction. But it is reliably known that a simple peasant woman, who only learned to read and write at the end of her life, was called by the King of England George V during a personal audience "Russian Joan of Arc", and the President of America, V. Wilson, honorably received in the White House. Her name is Bochkareva Maria Leontievna. Fate has prepared for her the honor of becoming the first female officer in the Russian army.
Childhood, youth and only love
The future heroine of the women's battalion was born into a simple peasant family in the village of Nikolskaya, Novgorod province. She was the third child of her parents. They lived from hand to mouth and, in order to somehow improve their plight, moved to Siberia, where the government in those years launched a program to help immigrants. But the hopes were not justified, and in order to get rid of the extra eater, Mary was married early to an unloved person, and besides, a drunkard. From him she got the surname - Bochkareva.
Very soon, a young woman forever parted with her hated husband 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, then the second turned out to be a real bandit who took part in robberies along with a gang of "hunghuz" - immigrants from China and Manchuria. But, as they say, love is evil… His name was Yankel (Yakov) Buk. When he was finally arrested and brought to Yakutsk for trial, Maria Bochkareva followed him, like the wives of the Decembrists.
But the desperate Yankel was incorrigible and even in the settlement he hunted by buying stolen goods, and later by robberies. To save her lover from inevitable hard labor, Maria was forced to give in 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: Buk, having learned about what had happened, in the heat of jealousy attempted on the governor. He was tried and sent by escort to a deaf remote place. Maria never saw 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 were sent to the front. Their example was followed by Maria Bochkareva. The history of her enrollment in the army is very unusual. Turning in November 1914 to the commander of the reserve battalion, located in Tomsk, she was refused with ironic advice to ask permission personally from the Emperor. Contrary to the expectations of the battalion commander, she really wrote a petition addressed to the highest name. What was the general astonishment when, after sometime came a positive response signed by Nicholas II.
After a short training course, in February 1915, Maria Bochkareva finds herself at the front as a civilian soldier - in those years there was such a status of military personnel. Taking up this unfeminine business, she, along with men, fearlessly went into bayonet attacks, pulled out the wounded from under fire and showed genuine heroism. Here, the nickname Yashka was assigned to her, which she chose for herself in memory of her lover - Yakov Buk. There were two men in her life - a husband and a lover. From the first she had a surname, from the second - a nickname.
When the company commander was killed in March 1916, Maria, taking his place, raised the fighters on the offensive, which became disastrous 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 the ranks, and only a severe wound in the thigh brought Maria to the hospital, where she lay for four months.
Creation of the first women's battalion in history
Returning to the position, Maria Bochkareva, a Cavalier of St. George and a recognized fighter, found her regiment in a state of complete decay. During her absence, the February Revolution took place, and endless rallies were held among the soldiers, alternating with fraternization with the "Germans". Deeply indignant at this, Maria looked for an opportunity to influence what was happening. Soon such an opportunity presented itself.
ForM. Rodzianko, chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, arrived at the front to carry out campaigning. With his support, Bochkareva ended up in Petrograd in early March, where she began to realize her long-held dream - the creation of military units from patriotic female volunteers ready to defend the Motherland. In this endeavor, she met with 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 Russian women expressed their desire to join the ranks of the unit being created with weapons in their hands. Worthy of attention is the fact that among them a significant part were educated women - students and graduates of the Bestuzhev courses, and a third of them had a secondary education. At that time, not a single male unit could boast of similar indicators. Among the "drummers" - this was the name assigned to them - there were representatives of all strata of society - from peasant women to aristocrats, bearing the loudest and most famous surnames in Russia.
The commander of the women's battalion, Maria Bochkareva, established iron discipline and the strictest subordination among her subordinates. The rise was at five in the morning, and the whole day until ten in the evening was filled with endless activities, interrupted only by a short rest. Many women, mostly from we althy families, had difficulty getting used to simple soldier food and a strict routine. But this was not their greatest difficulty.
It is known that soon the nameThe Supreme Commander began to receive complaints of rudeness and arbitrariness on the part of Bochkareva. Even the facts of assault were indicated. In addition, Maria strictly forbade political agitators, representatives of various party organizations from appearing at the location of her battalion, and this was a direct violation of the rules established by the February Revolution. As a result of mass discontent, two hundred and fifty “drummers” left Bochkareva and joined another formation.
Sending to the front
And then the long-awaited day came, when on June 21, 1917, on the square in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral, with a confluence of thousands of people, the new military unit received a battle flag. It was written on it: "The first women's command of the death of Maria Bochkareva." Needless to say, how much excitement the mistress of the celebration herself experienced, standing on the right flank in a new uniform? The day before, she was granted the rank of ensign, and Maria - the first female officer in the Russian army - was rightfully the heroine of that day.
But this is the peculiarity of all holidays - they are replaced by weekdays. So the festivities at St. Isaac's Cathedral were replaced by a gray and by no means romantic trench life. Young defenders of the Fatherland faced a reality that they had no idea about before. They found themselves among a degraded and morally decomposed mass of soldiers. Bochkareva herself in her memoirs calls the soldiers "unbridled shanty". To protect women from possible violence, they even had to post guards near the barracks.
However, after the very first military operation in whichthe battalion of Maria Bochkareva participated, the “shocks”, having shown courage worthy of real fighters, they forced them to treat themselves with respect. This happened in early July 1917 near Smorgan. After such a heroic start, even such an opponent of the participation of women's units in hostilities as General A. I. Kornilov was forced to change his mind.
Hospital in Petrograd and inspection of new units
The women's battalion participated in the battles on a par with all other units and, just 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 women's patriotic movement she started was widely developed. New battalions were formed, staffed by 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 test results were very disappointing. None of the battalions was 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 its organizational ardor has somewhat cooled down. She repeatedly stated that she was disappointed in women and henceforth does not consider it expedient to take them to the front - "sissies and crybabies."It is likely that her demands on her subordinates were extremely high, and what she, a military officer, was capable of was beyond the capabilities of ordinary women. Knight of the George Cross, Maria Bochkareva was by that time promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
Features of the Women's Death Battalion
Since the events described are chronologically approaching 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 created by Maria Bochkareva was at that time. The "Women's Battalion of Death" - as it is customary to call it - in accordance with the law, was considered an independent military unit and was equated in status to a regiment.
The total number of female soldiers was one thousand people. The officers were completely manned, and all of them 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 for training were created. In the disposition of the unit, any agitation and party work was strictly prohibited.
The battalion was not supposed to have any political overtones. His purpose was to defend the Fatherland from external enemies, and not to participate in internal political conflicts. The battalion commander was, as mentioned above, Maria Bochkareva. Her biography is inseparable from this combat formation. In the fall, everyone expected to be sent to the front soon, but something else happened.
Defense of the Winter Palace
Unexpectedly, an order was received to one of the battalion units to arrive on October 24 in Petrograd to participate in the parade. In reality, this was only a pretext for attracting "shock women" to defend the Winter Palace from the Bolsheviks who had begun an armed uprising. At that time, the palace garrison consisted of scattered units of Cossacks and cadets of various military schools and did not represent any serious military force.
Women who arrived and settled in the empty premises of the former royal residence were tasked with defending the southeast wing of the building from the side of Palace Square. On the very first day, they managed to push back a detachment of the Red Guards and take control of the Nikolaevsky bridge. However, the very next day, October 25, the building of the palace was completely surrounded by troops of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and a shootout soon began. From that moment on, 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, followed by the Cossacks. The women held out the longest and only by ten o'clock in the evening they sent the parliamentarians with a statement of surrender and a request to let them out of the palace. They were given the opportunity to withdraw, but under the condition of complete disarmament. After some time, the women's unit in full strength was placed in the barracks of the Pavlovsky Reserve Regiment, and then sent to the place of its permanent deployment in Levashovo.
Seizure of power by the Bolsheviks andsubsequent events
After the October armed coup, it was decided to liquidate the women's battalion. However, it was too dangerous to return home in military uniform. With the help of the “Committee of Public Security” operating in Petrograd, the women managed to get civilian clothes and get to their homes in this form.
It is absolutely certain that during the events in question, Bochkareva Maria Leontyevna was at the front and did not take any personal part in them. This is documented. However, the myth that it was she who commanded the defenders of the Winter Palace was firmly rooted. Even in the famous film by S. Eisenstein "October" in one of the characters one can easily recognize her image.
The further fate of this woman was very difficult. When the civil war began, the Russian Joan of Arc - Maria Bochkareva - was literally between two fires. Having heard about her authority among the soldiers and fighting skills, both warring parties tried to attract Maria into their ranks. At first, in Smolny, high-ranking representatives of the new government (according to her, Lenin and Trotsky) persuaded the 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 combat units. But in both cases, she refused: it is one thing to fight foreigners and defend the Motherland, andit is quite another to raise a hand against a compatriot. Her refusal was absolutely categorical, for which Maria almost paid with her freedom - the enraged general ordered her arrest, but, fortunately, the English allies stood up.
Maria's overseas tour
Her further fate takes the most unexpected turn - fulfilling the order of General Kornilov, Bochkareva travels to America and England for the purpose of agitation. She went on this voyage, dressed in the uniform of a sister of mercy and carrying false documents with her. It is hard to believe, but this simple peasant woman, who could barely read and write, behaved with dignity at a dinner at the White House, where President Wilson invited her on America's Independence Day. She was not at all embarrassed at the audience that King George V of England gave her. Mary arrived at Buckingham Palace in an officer's uniform and with all military awards. It was the English monarch who called her the Russian Joan of Arc.
Of all the questions Bochkareva asked the heads of state, she found it difficult to answer only one: is she for the Reds or for the Whites? This question made no sense to her. For Mary, both of them were brothers, and the civil war caused only deep sorrow in her. During her stay in America, Bochkareva dictated her memoirs to one of the Russian emigrants, which he edited and published under the name "Yashka" - the front-line nickname of Bochkareva. The book was published in 1919 and immediately became a bestseller.
Last task
Soon Maria returned to Russia, engulfedcivil war. She fulfilled her campaigning mission, but categorically refused to take up arms, which caused a break in relations with the command of the Arkhangelsk Front. The former enthusiastic reverence was replaced by cold condemnation. The experiences associated with this caused a deep depression, from which Maria tried to find a way out in alcohol. She noticeably fell, and the command sent her away from the front, to the rear city of Tomsk.
Here Bochkareva was destined to serve the Fatherland for the last time - after the persuasion of the Supreme 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 advance of the Reds prevented the completion of this matter.
A life that became a legend
When Tomsk was captured by the Bolsheviks, Bochkareva voluntarily appeared at the commandant's office and handed over her weapons. The new authorities refused her offer of cooperation. After some time, she was arrested and sent to Krasnoyarsk. The 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 department of the Cheka, IP Pavlunovsky, arrived in the city from Moscow - a stupid and ruthless executioner. Without delving into the essence of the matter, he gave the order - to shoot, which was executed immediately. The death of Maria Bochkareva came on May 16, 1919.
But this amazing woman's life wasso unusual that her very death gave rise to many legends. It is not known exactly where the grave of Maria Leontievna 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 plot spawned by her death.
It is based on the question: "Why was Maria Bochkareva shot?" Because they could not bring direct charges against her. In response to this, another legend claims that the brave Yashka hid American gold in Tomsk and refused to tell the Bolsheviks its whereabouts. There are many more incredible stories. But the main legend is, of course, Maria Bochkareva herself, whose biography could serve as a plot for the most exciting novel.
