On This Day in History: May 16

The Women's Battalion of Death

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Something named the “Battalion of Death” strikes fear. But when it’s called the “Women’s Battalion of Death,” well, then, that is truly fucking terrifying. 

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: May 16, 1920--

Maria Bochkareva was born in Russia to a peasant family in 1889. Russian peasants are not known for being wimps, and she was no exception. She did not have an easy life. At 16 she married, and her husband said hey let’s move to the tropical paradise of Siberia where I will start abusing you. She said fuck that guy and left him, then was forced to work in a brothel, then married again and he turned into a drunken and abusive piece of shit, and then there was a world fucking war and she said fuck it I’m gonna take my pain out on some German invaders. 

At first, Bochkareva was rejected by the army, but Tsar Nicholas II gave her personal permission and she was made a soldier. And what a badass soldier she turned out to be. Her battlefield exploits were legion; she killed the enemy and rescued wounded comrades in equal measure, getting medals and promotions and respect. That last one took time. At first her fellow soldiers were total dicks. 

In May of 1917 she petitioned and was authorized to create the Women’s Battalion of Death. Two thousand volunteered, and Maria’s strict discipline quickly whittled that number down to 300. And they were fucking murderous, obliterating the enemy like a drunken frat boy does a plate of “suicide” spicy chicken wings.

Led by Maria in the field, during the Kerensky Offensive the male soldiers were war weary and were all fuck this no we don’t want to attack. Maria and the WBD said well we’re fucking going with or without you, and that’s what they did: without them. They charged and cleared past three trenches and into German territory. The regimental commander was all hey these women are awesome! Well done! But then no reinforcements were sent, and the WBD eventually had to retreat in the face of a German counterattack because their male comrades weren’t into comradery that day and didn’t help them hold the position. 

They were still at the front during the Russian Revolution, and the men were all hey there was a revolution back home can we just quit this fucking war? And the women said stop being such fucking jam tarts no we’re not retreating. And so, being dicks, the men had the WBD disbanded so they could call it a war and be done with it. 

Maria wasn’t a supporter of the revolution, and after the war she narrowly escaped execution at the hands of the Bolsheviks and travelled to the U.S. and Britain, meeting with President Wilson and King George V to complain about how that commie shit was gonna ruin her country. She later returned home and in 1919 was captured once again, interrogated for several months, then executed on May 16, 1920, labelled an “enemy of the working class.” 

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