A RUSSIAN HEROINE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 128, 30 May 1918, Page 5

A RUSSIAN HEROINE.

AMERICA ASKED FOB AID

IN MEN AND MONET.

(Received 11.25 a.m.)

WASHINGTON, May 29. Madame Marie Botchkareva (leader of Russian Women's Battalion of Death) has appealed to Mr Baker and Mr Lansing to aid Russia militarily and economically. She urged the consolidation of pro-ally sentiment in Russia-— • (A. and N.Z. Cable.) I Marie Botchkareva, who formerly com- [ manded the Russian Legion of Death, re . | visiting America to enlist Allied syraj pathy for the Russian cause and to fight II in France against the Germans. She j came to the front at the time when ( Kerensky waE trying to stir the Rus- . | sian armies and nation out of the indiff ] ference regarding the war into which' j they lapsed after the first revolution- [ But before that she had had experience lof war as a soldier. Her husband waa i killed in battle three years ago, and , I thereupon, at the age of 22—she waa j1 married when she was 17—she said good- . : bye to her parents, and trudged off to the , J headquarters of her husband's regiment, [ a journey which occupied weeks. She [ served for more than a year in the trenches, being wounded three times, and also sustaining shell-shock. In the Lake Naroeh battle there was a time when all the officers having been killed, the men lost heart and lay down, refusing to attack. At this juncture Madame Botchkareva dashed forward, calling on the men to follow her, and thus saving the situation. For this gallant conduct she was awarded the Cross of St. George, the Russian V.C., and the thanks of the Government. Early last year, when on | leave, she went to Petrograd and waa j presented to Kerensky, who asked her j what she most wanted. "I want to form ' | a women's battalion," she replied, "which ' i will lead men into battle if they will not ' ! go themselves." Her wish was granted, . and the "Legion of Death" was the | result. It fought well in several engage- * merits, and in the Bolshevik rioting, later on, defended the Winter Palace in ' Petrograd, in which the members of the \ I Kerensky Government were sitting. | against the fury of the mob, which " I eventually treated many of the women atrociously..