6 - Mariia L. Bochkareva and the Russian amazons of 1917

Summary

We are all familiar with those entertainments which bring on a troupe of dancing women when the action begins to drag. All too often they are silent. And so it is in many of the accounts, on celluloid (and now magnetic tape) as well as in print, of the story of the Russian Provisional Government of 1917. We must all have seen those pictures of its female defenders giggling like oversized girl scouts on Palace Square on the morning of the Bolshevik triumph. For those of us with a Communist Party formation, the only permitted eye-witness account until the death of the ‘Great Helmsman’ was that of John Reed. Reed was, of course, a socialist. More to the point, he was accompanied on his travels through Russia by Louise Bryant, who may not be recognizable as a sister to all varieties of contemporary Anglo-Saxon feminism, but who had a strong sense of fellow-feeling for Russian women of widely differing political views.

Reed caught up with the women soldiers of the Provisional Government just as the Bolsheviks were about to storm the Winter Palace. A young officer described the disposition of forces to him:

‘The Women's Battalion decided to remain loyal to the Government.’

‘Are the women soldiers in the Palace?’

‘Yes, they are in the back rooms, where they won't be hurt if any trouble comes.’ He sighed. ‘It is a great responsibility.’