From February 23, it is customary to congratulate all men without disaster, even those who saw the machine only in the picture, and shouted except in computer zombies. But actually this is the Day of Defender of the Fatherland. And the Fatherland has always been not only defenders, but also defenders. Today, about 100,000 women serves in the Russian army.
Even now, a woman is not so easy to break into the ranks of the armed forces, but for a couple of centuries ago it was impossible at all. But made their way! At horse, in the tank, in the trench, behind the steering wheel of the aircraft - there were many brave girls in Russia. PICS.RU congratulates everyone who saves us, and remembers those who all began.Nadezhda Durov
Cavalist-maiden Nadezhda Durov - a person is absolutely real, although her biography looks like an essay of some romance that is also highly lifted on turns. Childhood of the daughter of the Gusar Rothmistra and Keinin's landowners were not exactly - a psychopathic mother of his daughter hated and once even threw her away, then another one-year-old baby, from the window of the carriage. After that, Dad decided that there would be enough such family joys from him and handed the child to the upbringing of His one-slang Astakhov.
The Durov herself later in his "notes" said that "the saddle was my first cradle." Astakhov, not fully understanding how to handle the female dates, raised her as a boys. At 18, Durov was rapidly married, she gave birth to a son and immediately escaped with passing Cossack Esuul, changing into a male dress.
6 years Hope looked somewhere with him under the guise of a twin, but by the beginning of the war with the French threw her Cossack and asked him to the cavalry connoisseur ulansky regiment, called Alexander Sokolov, the son of the landowner. He participated in battles for Guttstadt, Galesberg and Friedland, received the St. George Cross and the title of Unter-Officer.
So I would serve, but destroyed sentimentality. Durov wrote a letter to his father, asking for forgiveness for his behavior, dad pulled for the necessary threads and found hope. Grand El Scandal, Shame, Arrest, Returning to Evil Home, To Moms, To Raggins.
Howl in society stood such that even reached the emperor. Alexander I led himself quite unexpectedly - he summoned to Duru to the court, he heard, left his head, pretty stuck and ... sent it to the Mariupol Regiment in the rank of a podororuk, by writing a document to Alexander Alexandrov, so that the relatively could not find it.
Durov served in the army until 1816, commanded a half-donor, was on the Borodino field, retired and peacefully lived for a long 50 years in Elabuga in the company of cats and dogs.
Alexandra Tikhomirova
It is much known about the mumaram, however, it was far from the only woman who took part in that war. Around the same years, 18-year-old Alexander Tikhomirova remained round orphan - the parents died long ago, and Brother died in battle. The girl took from the secret man's metric brother, agreed on his hair and entered his military service under his name. She served in the Ulansky regiment, reached the commander of the company and only after 15 years resigned, so anyone and without giving his mystery.
Maria Bochierev
It took another hundred years so that women began to take into the army without any masquerade. The first regular female military formation in Russia was the voluntary impact battalion of death, which was commanded by Maria Bochkarev.
The battalion was formed during the first world and not in vain received such a gloomy name - the girls who served in it should not be fighting and winning, the task was heroic death on the battlefield - to the deterioration of man deserters.
Bochkarev herself, a semi-graphic peasant, voluntarily went to the front in 1914 and knocked himself the highest permission to serve - just did not take women in regular troops. The idea of the battalions of death also belonged to her, and the ministers gladly grabbed for such a agit campaign. The battalion was gained as a few female military, and a huge crowd of girls from citizen, mostly, as they say, from society. And they fought seriously, carrying huge losses.
But in spite of them, in the people, they are different as "frightened women" and "prostitutes" were not called, although the command appreciated women soldiers very high. After the revolution, the battalions of death disbanded, and Bochkareva, which the new government accused the amendment of the old, fled to the United States, overcoming the path from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok on the crosses, in a nurse costume.
Punching woman with its counter-revolutionary projects has achieved audiences at Woodrow Wilson and King George V, hoping to get financial support from them. In 1919, she returned to Russia, but he no longer had happened - after a few months the Bolsheviks grabbed it and shot without a court and investigation. She was 31 years old.
Ekaterina Zelenko
During the Second World Women, the army was no longer uncommon and exception to the rules. Ekaterina Zelenko, a girl from the aeroklub, immediately after the age of adulth, he entered the army and to the very Finnish war was engaged in testing aircraft. In 1939, she, the only pilot at that time in a combat squadron, bombed enemy warehouses and instructed newbies.
With the beginning of World War II, Zelenko switched to a new opponent. She commanded a group of bombers, made 40 battle departures and participated in 12 air battles.
In September 1941, Catherine returned from the union, when its Su-2 attacked 7 German fighters. She fell one of them, but the ammunition ended, and there were no chances about any. Instead of waiting until the Germans turn her plane in the sieve, she sent him to the nearest fighter.
Zelenko still remains the only woman in the world who committed a battle raid. The fragments of her aircraft were found at a depth of three meters, and Catherine herself, as she would probably wanted to be forever in the sky - somewhere in the cattle of the solar system, a small planet Katyusha revolves, named after her honor.
Alexandra Razhopkina
However, even in the 1940s, not every woman who wanted to go to the front, could do it in the open. Nobody wanted to let Alexander Razchopkina. And she rushed - both of her child died before the war, the husband was called to the front, and to remain in the collective farm did not shine. Mastered the tractor - will figure it out with a tank.
A little tricking about the bureaucratic wall, Alexander spoke, rejected into his pants and, taking advantage of the Bardaka in the military registration and enlistment office, he was recorded in volunteers under the name of Alexander Roschupkina. After the short courses, Alexander sent to the front with a mechanic driver T-34 tank.
Her secret revealed 3 months before the end of the war, when the car was cracked. Her, wounded and contused, pulled out from the burning tank and began to tie up - it turned out that she did not turn out that there was no Alexander. It would probably turn it out, but for the tanking personally, General Chuikov. And there and the war ended.
This story has almost incredibly happy final - Alexander demobilized, her husband also survived in the meat grinder, they moved to Samara and happily lived there until the end of their days. Craispoon, one of 20 women-tankers of the Second World War, died in 2010.