author
Mariia Bochkareva
1889–1920
A peasant-born Russian soldier who pushed past every barrier in wartime and became one of the most remarkable women of the First World War. Best known for creating the Women's Battalion of Death, she later told her story in a memoir that still reads with urgency and grit.
1 Audiobook
Yashka : My life as peasant, exile and soldier
by Mariia Bochkareva, Isaac Don Levine
About the author
Born into a poor peasant family in 1889, Mariia Bochkareva rose from a hard early life to become a decorated soldier in the Russian army during World War I. She was known for her courage at the front and for breaking norms that kept women out of combat.
In 1917, as Russia was shaken by war and revolution, she organized the Women's Battalion of Death, an all-female unit created to inspire exhausted troops and defend the country. Her leadership made her a widely discussed figure in Russia and abroad, and she became one of the best-known women associated with the Russian war effort.
Bochkareva later recounted her experiences in the memoir Yashka: My Life as Peasant, Officer and Exile. Captured in the turmoil after the revolution, she was executed in 1920, leaving behind a life story marked by hardship, determination, and extraordinary resolve.