1. Maria Leontievna Bochkareva was a Russian soldier who fought in World War I and formed the Women's Battalion.
23 Facts About Maria Bochkareva
1. 2.
Maria Bochkareva was the first Russian woman to command a military unit.
3.
Maria Bochkareva's father was a sergeant in the imperial army who fought in the Russo-Turkish War.
4.
Maria Bochkareva left home at sixteen to marry Afanasy Bochkarev.
5.
Maria Bochkareva's husband abused her, causing her to leave him.
6.
Maria Bochkareva found a job as a servant to employers who coerced her into working in their brothel.
7.
Maria Bochkareva followed him into exile, primarily on foot, where the couple established another butcher shop.
8.
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Maria Bochkareva left Buk and returned to Tomsk.
9.
Maria Bochkareva was decorated for rescuing fifty wounded soldiers from the field.
10.
Maria Bochkareva suffered another injury that left her paralyzed for four months.
11.
Maria Bochkareva believed that it would shame the men into again supporting the war effort.
12.
Maria Bochkareva herself was wounded in the battle and sent back to Petrograd to recuperate.
13.
Maria Bochkareva was only marginally involved in the creation of other women's combat units formed in Russia during the spring and summer of 1917.
14.
Maria Bochkareva's unit disbanded after facing increasing hostility from the remaining male troops at the front.
15.
Maria Bochkareva returned to Petrograd where she was briefly detained by the Bolsheviks.
16.
Maria Bochkareva secured permission to rejoin her family in Tomsk but returned to Petrograd again in early 1918.
17.
Maria Bochkareva was rescued by a soldier who had served with her in the Imperial Army in 1915 and who convinced the Bolsheviks to stay her execution.
18.
Maria Bochkareva was granted an external passport and allowed to leave the country.
19.
Maria Bochkareva then made her way to Vladivostok, where she left for the United States on the US Army Transport Sheridan on 18 April 1918.
20.
Maria Bochkareva arrived in Arkhangelsk in August 1918 and attempted to organise another unit, but failed.
21.
Maria Bochkareva was sent to Krasnoyarsk where she was interrogated for four months.
22.
Maria Bochkareva was shot by the Cheka on May 16,1920.
23.
Maria Bochkareva is one of the heroines of the Russian film Battalion directed by Dmitriy Meskhiev and released to cinemas in February 2015.