Maria Botchkareva. Yashka: My Life as a Peasant, Officer and Exile. Maria Botchkareva (1889-1920), nicknamed Yashka, fought in World War I and formed the Woman's Battalion of Death. Her unit, at the front at the time of the October Revolution, did not participate in the defense of the Winter Palace. In 1918, she made her way to the United States, where she was sponsored by the wealthy socialite Florence Harriman. While in New York, Botchkareva dictated these memoirs to a Russian emigre journalist. Later the same year, the British War Office gave her funding to return to Russia. In April 1919 she attempted to form a woman's medical detachment under the White admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, but was captured by the Bolsheviks. The Cheka carried out her execution by firing squad in May, 1920.

NY: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919. 1st edition. 340 pages. Red cloth with gilt stamped titles, paste-down photo of Botchkareva on front cover and tissue-protected frontispiece photo of her. Book is in very good condition, name and address inside front cover. [#RM-51K]

Yashka $75.00