Why read They Fought for the Motherland?

Book cover of They Fought for the Motherland: Russia's Women Soldiers in World War I and the Revolution

Book description

Women have participated in war throughout history, but their experience in Russia during the First World War was truly exceptional. Between the war's beginning and the October Revolution of 1917, approximately 6,000 women answered their country's call. These courageous women became media stars throughout Europe and America, but were brushed…

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War

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Why read it?

1 author picked They Fought for the Motherland as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alison Fell

Author

Although they are largely forgotten now, the five to six thousand Russian women who enlisted as soldiers were amongst the most photographed and written about women in the First World War, especially the charismatic but tyrannical leader of the 1st Russian Women’s Battalion of Death, Maria Bochkareva. Stoff’s book gives a highly readable and fascinating account of their formation, their military action, their ill-fated involvement in the defence of the Winter Palace when it was stormed by the Bolsheviks in November 1917, and their reception by the rest of the world as the only battalions of women to carry…

From Alison's list on The best books on women and the First World War.