“Seeing that the men were wavering, and actuated by indignant horror at
the unequal fight, Sister Myra Ivanovna drew a sword from the sheath of
a dead officer and ran from the station. She was followed by some of
the wounded soldiers, who, with tears in their eyes, implored her to
return, and even tried to detain her by holding her arms, but she freed
herself.
“Then, her eyes burning with excitement, she went forward. She was not
alone, for the soldiers were anxious to defend this frail woman who was
leading them back to the trenches, her sword raised in the air.
“The soldiers of the 10th Regiment were wavering in the trenches when,
at the critical moment, Sister Myra, surrounded by a group of wounded
soldiers, with uplifted sword, rushed toward the trench. At once there
was a resounding ‘Hurrah!’ and the rifles of the exhausted soldiers
commenced once more their deadly clicking.
“For a moment Sister Myra bent toward the occupants of the trench,
and they heard the word ‘_Golubebiki!_’ (Dear ones). Then, rising
to her feet, she ran forward, her sword flashing in the air. All
the men followed her. But all the time the enemy machine-guns were
steadily spitting forth their leaden pellets of death, and, though
losing men with every step, the remnants of the company made a wild
dash for the enemy’s trench, which they occupied after furious work
with the bayonet. The enemy fled precipitately, but in the recesses
of the trench, on the bloody ground trodden by the feet of the eager
combatants, lay Sister Myra Ivanovna.
“Rough soldiers bent over her, and now that the excitement of the fray
was over they wept as they tried vainly to arrest the flow of blood
from a wound in her throat. She was carried out of the fire, but before
she had proceeded far another bullet struck her, and she fell dead
among the group of soldiers.”
“A true heroine,” writes Mr. Kupchinsky, “a type of the Russian woman
who is guiding us to victory.”
Alas! that was in 1915.