Russia's women soldiers have pledged themselves to take their own lives
rather than become German war prisoners. Each woman soldier carries a
ration of cyanide of potassium to be swallowed in case of capture.
The members of the women regiments, now constantly increasing, agreed
that death was to be preferred to the fate they would probably meet at
the hands of the Germans.
The "Legion of Death" fighters are "good killers." I learned this
to-day, when I talked to five of them now in a hospital near here,
suffering from shell shock. From a woman's lips I heard how she had run
a German through with her bayonet, firing the rifle at the same time.
From others I heard how these women and girls, fresh from comfortable
homes and universities, went leaping over mangled bodies in the charge
with enemy shells bursting all about them.
But these harrowing experiences of the women fighters have steeled
them and hundreds of other girls to a new determination to see it
through. Girl soldiers drilling in the streets are now a common sight
in Petrograd. Huge crowds gather daily about the Engineers' School,
where 1,000 girls are drilling preparing to go to the front. In Moscow
1,000 men are training, while Kieff and Odessa have smaller bands.
Premier Kerensky has also authorized the formation of women marine
detachments and has promised to assign them to ships. The new women
commands attempt no sort of decoration. Their heads are shaved and they
wear the regulation uniform, including the heavy, ugly army boots.
The five women fighters I visited at the hospital were partially
paralyzed by shell shock. One of them, a peasant girl, smiled joyously
as she pointed to a German helmet on the bed beside her. It was the
first war prize of a Russian woman.
"I saw a German in front of me as I ran forward with the others in the
charge," she told me. "It was his life or mine. I raised my rifle. I
plunged with all my strength. I stabbed him. The bayonet went deep into
his body. At the same moment I pulled the trigger. He dropped dead.
Then I took his hat as a souvenir."
The girl soldier smiled with delight.
"What was the battle like?" I asked another of the legionnaires.
"I was very nervous just before the charge," she replied. "We knew the
order was coming and naturally we were just a little scared. But as
soon as the orders to go forward came we forgot everything else in the
advance.
"I could hear our girls yelling and shouting throughout the march
forward. None of us were afraid once we got started. We were in the
midst of a great fusillade of shots. Then terrific big shells began
breaking all around us.
"We were again frightened a little when we first saw dead men about,
but before very long we were jumping over the dead, and quickly forgot
all about them."
"We couldn't tell what was going on anywhere," said a third girl in
describing the final stages of the battle.
"Commander Bochkoreva was everywhere, urging us to fight and die like
real Russian soldiers."
Then the girl told how the legion took its first prisoners.
"As we ran forward we suddenly came upon a bunch of Germans immediately
ahead of us. It was only a second until we were all around them.
"They saw they were caught and threw down their rifles, holding up
their hands. They were terribly frightened.
"Good God! Women!" they exclaimed.
"We saw wounded German soldiers raising themselves on their elbows and
shooting," interjected another wounded girl. "We just forgot ourselves
entirely. We were simply Russia, fighting for her life.
"The loss of Lena, the most popular member of our company, was keenly
felt by all of us," she added soberly. "During the battle Lena heard
that Commander Bochkoreva had been killed. She hurried forward into the
shell and fire, saying she was going to find her. We saw her go through
one space literally strewn with exploding shells. Then, through the
smoke and flames, we saw her blown to fragments.
"We also lost Sonia. She used to be a musician with the Romanoff
concert organization. She was killed by machine gun fire."
Petrograd has not yet seen the full casualty list of the Legion of
Death. From what the girls say, however, it appears that at least a
dozen big shells struck square in their midst, killing perhaps twelve
girls and wounding twice as many more.
Five of the German prisoners the girls captured were women, wearing
the German soldier's uniform. The number of women in all armies on the
eastern front is believed to be growing steadily.
As I returned from the hospital where I saw these paralyzed girls I met
a new company of women marching briskly through the street. They were
ready for the firing line, ready to give their lives in battle, and
with their little ration of cyanide ready to take their own lives to
avoid worse than death at the hands of the enemy.