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This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women's Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution. Surviving domestic abuse and Siberian exile, Maria Bochkareva resolved to fight for the Motherland in the Great Patriotic War and, against all odds, succeeded. Her stories from the front are harrowing and gritty. But they are only the beginning. For when the military falls apart in the wake of the February Revolution, Bochkareva creates an all-women's battalion as a way of shaming Russia's men back into defending the country from German aggression. As a first-hand account of Russian life a century ago, this is a crucial autobiography. That it also offers a portrait of a bold and brave woman striving for equality and respect by flying in the face of convention and tradition makes it invaluable.

Yashka is the autobiography of Maria Botchkareva, a young Russian woman who bravely took up arms first against the Germans in World War One, and then opposed the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Maria describes a hard upbringing as a member of the Russian peasantry. Married at sixteen to her first husband Afanasy, it wasn't long before his charms were replaced by physical abuse; Maria soon fled. She applied for work as a servant girl, only to discover that the man advertising actually owned a string of brothels; she was promptly sent to the town of Sretensk to work in one. Such harsh experiences in youth nevertheless built a certain determination and toughness in the young Maria. When war broke out in 1914, she applied to join as a soldier - facing verbal abuse and sexual harassment from the outset, she nevertheless took to military life with eagerness and courage. The soldiers nicknamed her 'Yashka', and a measure of respect was slowly gained as she demonstrated great bravery. The middle portions of the book see Botchkareva describe the most exciting episodes of her army service. Her dramatic rescue of fifty wounded soldiers is accompanied by her success in defeating the enemy. Briefly captured, Yashka claimed to be a Red Cross nurse looking for her husband, but soon after ambushed and escaped the German platoon, inflicting several casualties in the process. The Russian Revolution would disrupt the military's operations, and Yashka soon found many of her fellow soldiers demoralized both from war fatigue and a sympathy for the Bolshevik cause. Narrowly avoiding execution by the Bolsheviks, she escaped to the United States - where this memoir was dictated to Isaac Don Levine. Determined to stop communism from overtaking the country, Botchkareva returned to Russia but was put to death as an 'Enemy of the People' in 1920.

Yashka is the autobiography of Maria Botchkareva, a young Russian woman who bravely took up arms first against the Germans in World War One, and then opposed the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Maria describes a hard upbringing as a member of the Russian peasantry. Married at sixteen to her first husband Afanasy, it wasn't long before his charms were replaced by physical abuse; Maria soon fled. She applied for work as a servant girl, only to discover that the man advertising actually owned a string of brothels; she was promptly sent to the town of Sretensk to work in one. Such harsh experiences in youth nevertheless built a certain determination and toughness in the young Maria. When war broke out in 1914, she applied to join as a soldier - facing verbal abuse and sexual harassment from the outset, she nevertheless took to military life with eagerness and courage. The soldiers nicknamed her 'Yashka', and a measure of respect was slowly gained as she demonstrated great bravery.

Yashka is the autobiography of Maria Botchkareva, a young Russian woman who bravely took up arms first against the Germans in World War One, and then opposed the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Maria describes a hard upbringing as a member of the Russian peasantry. Married at sixteen to her first husband Afanasy, it wasn't long before his charms were replaced by physical abuse; Maria soon fled. She applied for work as a servant girl, only to discover that the man advertising actually owned a string of brothels; she was promptly sent to the town of Sretensk to work in one. Such harsh experiences in youth nevertheless built a certain determination and toughness in the young Maria. When war broke out in 1914, she applied to join as a soldier - facing verbal abuse and sexual harassment from the outset, she nevertheless took to military life with eagerness and courage. The soldiers nicknamed her 'Yashka', and a measure of respect was slowly gained as she demonstrated great bravery.

Al socaire de la I Guerra Mundial, Maria Botchkareva decide incorporarse a filas y crear batallones de mujeres que se incorporen al frente con el objetivo de contribuir a la expulsión de los alemanes y dar un ejemplo a los hombres. El estallido de la Revolución disloca la maquinaria de guerra y el ascenso de los bolcheviques la lleva al dilema de incorporarse a la guerra civil en marcha o exiliarse. Se la conocía como la Juan de Arco rusa.

A Russian nurse joins the army's Women's Death Battalion in the closing months of the First World War and is caught up in the Bolshevik Revolution and subsequent civil war.