Death's Battalion

[gporta]

While, unlike the girls in these pictures, I am not a person keen on war, I think that you might find these pictures interesting. They depict Russian female soldiers of the Great War.

They come from an old magazine (dated September 1917) I have at home and the captions (roughly translated) say: "some of the women who fought while men were retreating" and "Troops of Death's Battalion during drill"

This was not the usual kind of female involvement in war back then.

Gloria

[Desmond7]

I believe that either Huw Stracchan's World War One prog .. or WW1 in colour .. had a piece on these ladies. I remember extracts from the memoirs of one of the leading members being 'voiced over'

Des

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Real Femme' Fatales!;A fearsome Bunch,the "Ladies from Hell" who were evidently treated abysmally by their Captors when captured,& also fought stoically

[DaveBrigg]

"Ladies from Hell"  who were evidently treated abysmally by their Captors when captured

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This answers a question I have had lingering since browsing a different site for images. There was a picture of the body of one of these women, in a condition such that I wished I had never seen it. I shan't be adding a link.

[bob lembke]

Did this unit actually ever fight against the Central Powers, against the Bolshiviks, or against anyone? I think that they were more likely to have been swept up in the developing civil war. I have read a bit about them, largely forgot the little I read, but don't recall them having taken part in the war itself.

Bob Lembke

[bob lembke]

Did this unit actually ever fight against the Central Powers, against the Bolshiviks, or against anyone? I think that they were more likely to have been swept up in the developing civil war. I have read a bit about them, largely forgot the little I read, but don't recall them having taken part in the war itself.

Bob Lembke

[frev]

Did this unit actually ever fight against the Central Powers, against the Bolshiviks, or against anyone? I think that they were more likely to have been swept up in the developing civil war. I have read a bit about them, largely forgot the little I read, but don't recall them having taken part in the war itself.

Bob Lembke

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Bob

Hope this answers your question.

The following excerpt is from a book called 'Lines of Fire - Women Writers of WW1' (ed. by M.R. Higonnet):

Mary Gotoubyova (b.1899) Russian

(interviewed by A.D. Fleurot)

"Reportedly the first woman to kill a German in the Women's Battalion of Death led by Maria Botchkareva, Mary Gotoubyova was wounded on her second day at the front and sent back with ten comrades to a hospital in Petrograd. She and the other members of the battalion carried cyanide of potassium in case of capture. Of over two hundred in this command only fifty remained after their first battle: twenty were killed, eight taken prisoner, and the rest wounded. During their engagement near Smorgon at Novospassky Wood, they said they found among their German prisoners a few women soldiers as well."

Cheers, Frev.

[Doc2]

Bob

Hope this answers your question.

The following excerpt is from a book called 'Lines of Fire - Women Writers of WW1' (ed. by M.R. Higonnet):

Mary Gotoubyova (b.1899) Russian

(interviewed by A.D. Fleurot)

"Reportedly the first woman to kill a German in the Women's Battalion of Death led by Maria Botchkareva, Mary Gotoubyova was wounded on her second day at the front and sent back with ten comrades to a hospital in Petrograd.  She and the other members of the battalion carried cyanide of potassium in case of capture.  Of over two hundred in this command only fifty remained after their first battle: twenty were killed, eight taken prisoner, and the rest wounded.  During their engagement near Smorgon at Novospassky Wood, they said they found among their German prisoners a few women soldiers as well."

 

Cheers, Frev.

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Frev, good morning. Can you please provide publication data on that book? It's one I haven't seen. Does it have anything on women aviators in it? Thanks. Doc2

[frev]

Frev, good morning.  Can you please provide publication data on that book?  It's one I haven't seen.  Does it have anything on women aviators in it?  Thanks.  Doc2

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Good morning to you too Doc2 - I can only just say that because it's just past midnight in sleepy old Oz!

Anyway, the mentioned book was published in 1999 by Plume (a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.) It was printed in the USA.

[iSBN 0-452-28146-6]

Sorry, can't find anything on female aviators (aviatrices).

It's broken up into 5 Sections:

I. Political Writing. II. Journalism. III. Testimonial: Diaries, Memoirs, Letters, Interviews. IV. Short Fiction. V. Poems.

Parts of it are very interesting.

Cheers, Frev.

[bob lembke]

Bob

Hope this answers your question.

The following excerpt is from a book called 'Lines of Fire - Women Writers of WW1' (ed. by M.R. Higonnet):

Mary Gotoubyova (b.1899) Russian

(interviewed by A.D. Fleurot)

"Reportedly the first woman to kill a German in the Women's Battalion of Death led by Maria Botchkareva, Mary Gotoubyova was wounded on her second day at the front and sent back with ten comrades to a hospital in Petrograd.  She and the other members of the battalion carried cyanide of potassium in case of capture.  Of over two hundred in this command only fifty remained after their first battle: twenty were killed, eight taken prisoner, and the rest wounded.  During their engagement near Smorgon at Novospassky Wood, they said they found among their German prisoners a few women soldiers as well."

 

Cheers, Frev.

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Two problems.

Of 200, 20 dead, 8 taken prisoner, 50 OK, means 122 wounded. A ratio of 20 dead to 122 wounded is a very odd ratio.

"During their engagement near Smorgon at Novospassky Wood, they said they found among their German prisoners a few women soldiers as well." I totally reject that. I am quite sure that the German Army had no authorized female combat soldiers, no female units, nothing of the sort, and with complete physicals, communal indoor and outdoor bathing and latrines, and "short-arm inspections", a female poising as a male soldier would be "uncovered" in a day or so.

So I find the passage rather suspect. But the unit certainly existed. Didn't they expel their founder, saying her leadership was too harsh?

Bob Lembke

[Myrtle]

Martha Malko, the wife of a Russian sub-officer was said to have fought by the side of her husband until he was killed. She was then taken prisoner by the Germans at Schoulen.

[De Petrowski Alexander]

Martha Malko, the wife of a Russian sub-officer was said to have fought by the side of her husband until he was killed. She was then taken prisoner by the Germans at Schoulen.

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the first major battle of the battalion of death was in early july 1917, during the failed Kerensky offensive, apparently they fought bravely and stubbornly but the Russian Military was already falling apart, dooming all efforts

[frev]

Two problems.

Of 200, 20 dead, 8 taken prisoner, 50 OK, means 122 wounded. A ratio of 20 dead to 122 wounded is a very odd ratio.

"During their engagement near Smorgon at Novospassky Wood, they said they found among their German prisoners a few women soldiers as well."  I totally reject that. I am quite sure that the German Army had no authorized female combat soldiers, no female units, nothing of the sort, and with complete physicals, communal indoor and outdoor bathing and latrines, and "short-arm inspections", a female poising as a male soldier would be "uncovered" in a day or so.

So I find the passage rather suspect. But the unit certainly existed. Didn't they expel their founder, saying her leadership was too harsh?

Bob Lembke

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Hi Bob

Can't argue these points with you - haven't actually done any research into this area myself. Guilty of spouting what's in the book. More of the same:

Their founder - Maria Leont'evna Botchkareva (nee Frolkova)

(1889-1919?) Russian

"....................... therefore, under the provisional government of Aleksandr Kerensky, she proposed in May 1917 the formation of a women's 'battalion of death', which was supported by President Rodzianko of the Duma in Petrograd, General Aleksey Brusilov, and Kerensky.

............................. Two thousand women enlisted, forming two battalions; her strict discipline ultimately limited her force to under three hundred women. Many dropped out as a result of Bolshevik agitation, ................................

Her battalion and the female Perm Battalion went into action at the front lines; other women's battalions with up to one thousand soldiers guarded Moscow and Petrograd. In a July attack Botchkareva's troops took two thousand prisoners, at the cost of seventy casualties, earning the hatred of fellow soldiers, who accused her of provoking counterattacks. She supported General Laurus Kornilov in his attempted military coup d'etat; when Kerensky was overthrown, twenty of her women were lynched and others battered by male soldiers; the rest were forced to disperse.

In May 1918 with the help of the British Consulate and Mrs Borden Harriman, Botchkareva traveled to the United States to petition Woodrow Wilson to intervene in Russia. ................................................ When she returned in August to Archangel with the Allied invasion force, in the hope of serving as a mediator, she was stripped of here uniform by a Soviet general, who declared 'the summoning of women for military duties which are not appropriate for their sex would be a heavy reproach and a disgraceful stain on the whole population of the northern region.' In the subsequent upheaval Botchkareva disappeared, .............."

Make of it what you will.

Cheers, Frev

[bob lembke]

Hi, Frev;

Again, I quibble. According to the source, the battalion at the time of it's attack had been at a strength of 1000 but by then either was down to or on it's way to a strength of under 300. For a unit of this strength to take 2000 prisoners in an attack, especially in the age of the bolt-action rifle, and if the unit, even if the gender was not apparent, seemed composed of "men" mostly of unimpressive or even diminutive stature, would require a fair amount of cooperation from the POWs, unless it was an unusual situation, like the men being captured in the bathhouse.

However, it must be stated that anything was possible with the Austro-Hungarian Army, where, supposedly, some ethnic units such as Czech sometimes went over with bands blaring. Is it known where or which enemy sector was involved? At that period travel was uncertain at best on the railroads, and it would have been difficult to reach the southern front; besides, the Germans were by far the greater threat.

At that stage of the war the troops of the Central Powers knew the chaotic situation in the Russian Army, and I think that they generally would try quite hard to not be captured. Also, things had been quiet, probably lifting morale. On the other hand, the quiet front might have allowed troops to be taken in a surprise attack. But I think that the odds that a few hundred green Russian troops, women or not, capturing 2000 German troops in an attack, especially at that stage of the war, seems remote. Have you read first-person accounts of the chaos at that time? Really bad. Just read a source who said, from memory: "Things are quiet at the front, but we hear firing. Deserters tell us that the Russian infantry and artillery are fighting." I have read, again a primary source, of political meetings going on for say six hours, speaker after speaker, and most of the speakers being beaten to death by the audience during the meeting.

The overall facts seem to be consistent with what I have heard, but I get the impression that there is a bit of "gilding the lily" in the narrative.

I would imagine that some of the women recruits were tough and determined, but I would also think that many of them were upper-class dillitants who, once the realities of the military life, especially those in the chaotic Russian Army of the period, sunk in, slinked away back to their tea services and servants.

Bob Lembke

[frev]

Again, I quibble. According to the source, the battalion at the time of it's attack had been at a strength of 1000 but by then either was down to or on it's way to a strength of under 300. For a unit of this strength to take 2000 prisoners in an attack, ....................................

The overall facts seem to be consistent with what I have heard, but I get the impression that there is a bit of "gilding the lily" in the narrative.

I would imagine that some of the women recruits were tough and determined, but I would also think that many of them were upper-class dillitants who, once the realities of the military life, especially those in the chaotic Russian Army of the period, sunk in, slinked away back to their tea services and servants.

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Bob (& anyone else reading this)

As I said – I haven’t read much about this area of the war before – but I’m finding it quite fascinating.

As to ‘gilding the lily’ – I doubt that there’s any narrative, be it a primary source, second, third-hand etc, that isn’t guilty of this to some degree. Five people witness an accident – and they’ll all have a different story to tell – each believing their own truth. And of course propaganda never flows more freely than during the emotional upheaval of war.

By the way the 1000 soldiers mentioned in the previous post were guarding Moscow & Petrograd – not part of the attack.

However, it turns out (according to her story) that Botchkareva was actually leading about 1000 soldiers in the attack of July 1917, the majority of them being men.

In her own words (from her Memoirs dictated to Isaac Levine in America in 1918: Yashka, My Life as Peasant, Officer, and Exile.) she states:

“The order from General Valuyev, Commander of the Tenth Army, was for our whole Corps to go over the top at 3a.m., July the 8th [1917].”

The majority of the men refused to budge. Botchkareva (Yashka) & her battalion were ready to fight but couldn’t move without them – she goes on to say:

“Orders were given to the artillery to continue the bombardment. All day the cannon boomed while the men debated.”

“The day declined. The men had arrived at no final resolution. Then, about seventy-five officers, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Ivanov, came to me to ask permission to enter the ranks of the Battalion for a joint advance. They were followed by about three hundred of the most intelligent and gallant soldiers in the regiment. Altogether, the Battalion’s ranks had swollen to about a thousand. I offered the command to Lieutenant-Colonel Ivanov as to a superior, but he declined.

Every officer was provided with a rifle. The line was so arranged that men and women alternated, a girl being flanked by two men. The officers, now numbering about a hundred, were stationed at equal distances throughout the line.”

Their hope was that once they began the advance – the rest of the Corps would follow – their hope was rewarded.

Botchkareva continues:

“We swept forward and overwhelmed the first German line, and then the second. Our regiment alone captured two thousand prisoners.”

Maria Botchkareva seems to have been very tough – she was the semi-illiterate daughter of a serf, who endured abusive parents & relationships, washed dishes & laid concrete to survive. She served with the Tomsk Reserve Battalion between 1914-17, was wounded by shrapnel in her spine, & was decorated 3 times.

Mary Gotoubyova (in her interview with A.D. Fleurot) had this to say:

“Going to war is not too much for a woman. I was always strong. Still, being a woman, I wondered if it would be too fatiguing. Once at the front, I forgot whether I was a man or a woman. I was just a soldier. The only preparation I made against contact with the enemy was to wrap the upper portion of my body firmly. In the burning battle I was never hampered for an instant on account of my sex. The soldiers, the real brave soldiers, treated me like a comrade. Only the cowards jeered.”

Bessie Beatty, the American journalist who spent a week with the Women’s Battalion of Death (during the July offensive) had this to say about the type of women in the battalion:

“There were stenographers and dressmakers among them, servants and factory hands, university students and peasants, and a few who in the days before the war had been merely parasites. Several were Red Cross nurses, and one, the oldest member of the regiment, a woman of forty-eight whose closely cropped hair was turning gray, had exchanged a lucrative medical practice for a soldier’s uniform.”

Amongst the many reasons for joining:

“Some, like Bachkarova, in the days of the Siberian village had simply come to the point where anything was better than the dreary drudgery and the drearier waiting of life as they lived it.”

After the battle:

Marya Skridlova: “I was not afraid. None of us were afraid. We expected to die, so we had nothing to fear.”

(from The Red Heart of Russia. B. Beatty 1918)

Once the realities of the military life set in, they never had the chance to slink away – they were ‘forced to disperse’ when Kerensky was overthrown in Oct 1917.

Cheers, Frev.

[Myrtle]

Frev

Thanks. Very interesting to read. I believe the photograph of Martha Malko was taken in 1916. Is there any information about the battalion in that year ?

Myrtle

[frev]

Hi Myrtle

The Women's Battalion of Death wasn't formed until May 1917. Martha must have been fighting with one of the men's units - just as Botchkareva was before she started the women's battalion.

Cheers, Frev.

[Myrtle]

Hi Myrtle

The Women's Battalion of Death wasn't formed until May 1917.  Martha must have been fighting with one of the men's units - just as Botchkareva was before she started the women's battalion.

Cheers, Frev.

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Frev

Thanks for clarifying that. It seems that Martha must have been captured before the women's battalion was formed.

Myrtle