Death Battalion Women
Apparently, if you want my undivided attention, all you need to do is say “women’s death battalion" 😂
“The news of a woman recruit had preceded me at the barracks and my arrival there precipitated a riot of fun. The men assumed that I was a loose-moraled woman who had made her way into the ranks for the sake of carrying on her illicit trade.”
Hello and happy Thursday to you!
Let’s get straight into it today.
I posted recently on LinkedIn about a very unexpected discovery that I made while planning some lessons about the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Apparently, if you want my undivided attention, all you need to do is say “women’s death battalion” 😂😂😂
So, yeah, it turns out that there was a Women’s Death Battalion, active in Russia in 1917 - the year that Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and there was a power-sharing attempt before the Bolshevik coup.
When I say “active,” I really mean active. These were armed women, fighting on the front lines. An American journalist called Bessie Beatty went to the Eastern Front to see these women first-hand. She later wrote:
“Women can fight. Women have the courage, the endurance and even the strength for fighting. The Russians have demonstrated that and, if necessary, all the other women in the world can demonstrate it."
The Women’s Death Battalion were led by Maria Bochkareva who I’ve quoted at the top of this post. (And, no, she’s not mentioned at all in the A-Level spec, in case you were wondering). The suitability of women for combat has been a discussion point for some time, and I think it’s worth repeating Maria’s story because it ties in so well to this. It also gives us an opportunity to reframe the way we think about ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles and contributions, both in Russia in 1917 and in World War One, more generally.
The Life of Maria Bochkareva
Born in July 1889, Maria’s early life was characterised by male violence. She left home at 15 (thanks to an abusive father) and had left not one but two abusive husbands by the time she was 25.
When Russia entered World War One, Maria tried to join the Imperial Army but was rejected because she was a woman. Undeterred, she wrote to the tsar (yes, you read that correctly!) and secured his permission to join a male unit. She was decorated several times for bravery before being discharged in early 1917. I found this image of Maria with some of the men from her unit:
After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, Maria persuaded Mikhail Rodzianko, a leading figure in the new Provisional Government, to support her idea for an all-female military unit. She then got the green light from the Minister of War, Alexander Kerensky. From there, Maria recruited and trained some 2000 women. Here she is with a group of them:
Maria’s goal in creating the Women’s Death Battalion was to motivate Russian men. We have to remember just how badly Russia fared in World War One. We see this clearly in a speech she made in May 1917:
"Come with us in the name of your fallen heroes. Come with us to dry the tears and heal the wounds of Russia. Protect her with your lives. We women are turning into tigresses to protect our children from a shameful yoke - to protect the freedom of our country.”
Maria’s pro-conflict sentiments were not shared by all in Russia. While the Provisional Government had no intention of pulling Russia out of the war, it survived for only 8 months. The Bolsheviks, on the other hand, were committed to ending Russian involvement in World War One. By October 1917, both the Women’s Death Battalion and the Provisional Government were no more. The Bolsheviks would now focus on negotiating a treaty to bring Russian soldiers home.
So, what became of Maria?
Perhaps understandably, she left Russia. She went to England where she met King George V and members of the British government. Britain then paid for her return to Russia to fight against the Bolshevik’s Red Army. In 1919, she was captured by Bolshevik forces and executed a year later.
Remembering Maria Bochkareva
It’s not helpful for us to view Maria as some kind of fearless heroine.
As always, I’m not here to portray Maria (or any woman) as some kind of fearless heroine. I don’t care about how brave/strong/resilient women were (or are today) and I’m not offering her up to you as an “inspiration” or a “role model.”
But you get that. I know you do. We don’t do fluffy, Hallmark women’s history here.
But we do need stories like Maria’s if we want our understanding of the past to be anywhere close to accurate. She also offers us a tiny window into the rich political, military and even diplomatic activities of women during the Russian Revolution, which I hope to see one day in A-Level history.
Until next time,
Kaye x
P.S. I did a podcast with the lovely Fiona Tatton from Womanthology for Women’s History Month. Listen here.