Student Presentations
Purpose: to become familiar with some of the most decorated female military professionals in the history of conflict. These women served as part of European combat operations during World War I. One combatant in particular, Maria Botchkareva of Russia, fought on the front lines for the White Army. Milunka Savić of Serbia is noted briefly due to her stature as the most decorated woman in the history of war. You will read in entirety the story of Maria Botchkareva. Who were Savić and Botchkareva? Why are they an important part of the historical context of women in combat? Where did they fight? What were their philosophies of life and fighting? What role did Serbia play in World War I? What were the red and white armies of Russia? Which side did these combat warriors support and why?
Required:
(1): Maria Leontievna Frolkova Bochkareva, as told to Isac Don Levine. Yashka, my life as peasant, exile and soldier. Constable and Company, Ltd. 1919. Reproduced by Andesite Press, 2015.
(2): “Milunka Savić, the most awarded female combatant in the history of warfare.”
(3): Heroes of Serbia: Milunka Savić: WWI veteran:The most decorated female combatant in the history of warfare, November 13, 2009.
(4): Božica Mladenović. “Women's Mobilization for War (South East Europe),” International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Supplemental Materials:
Maria Botchkareva, "Russia's Women Soldiers," Russia's Battalion of Death as found in the Literary Digest, 1917.
Documentary Film: By the director Zdravko Sotra, Where the Yellow Lemon Blooms. Part of a three piece series on WWI by Sotra. Following is a description of his work:
“By the end of 1915, during the second half of World War I, which had started by the Austro-Hungarian Empire's attack on a small Kingdom of Serbia, Serbian people, its army, and the
state found themselves in the greatest tribulation in its long history. Serbia is attacked by the combined militaries of Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, and Bulgaria. Defending every road,
every hill, every creek, during the time when every village, every plateau, every crossing was becoming a historical landmark, Serbia, relying on the Allies, moved its people, its government,
and its remaining troops to Kosovo--the only unoccupied part of the Serbian territory, but soon had to cross Albania in the hopes of reaching the Allies' ships in the Mediterranean.”
Melissa K. Stockdale. “My Death for the Motherland is Happiness, Women, Patriotism and Soldiering in Russia’s Great War,” The American Historical Review. 1914-1917. 109:1 (2004) 12 May, 2011.
Laurie Stoff. "Women Soldiers in Russia's Great War," Russia's Great War and Revolution Online
"The Legion of Death Women Soldiers on the Firing Line," told by officers and eyewitnesses from the Battlefields.
In True Stories of the Great War. Found on Project Gutenberg Online
YouTube: See Serbian Language videos and interviews by Milunka Savić
Supplemental Spotlight:
Europe World War I. Women’s Suffrage Women’s Peace Movements
The fight for women’s rights were paramount during the year’s tandem to World War I. Also, the women’s peace movement during the War aligned with women’s voting and legal rights issues.
Elizabeth Crawford. The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. (November 1, 1999).
Susan R. Grayzel. Women’s Identities at War: Gender, Motherhood and Politics in Britain and France during the First World War. The University of North Carolina Press (1999).
Louise Ryan. “A question of loyalty: War, nation, and feminism in early twentieth-century Ireland.” Women's Studies International Forum, Volume 20, Issue 1, January–February 1997, pp. 21–32.
A.K. Smith. Suffrage Discourse in Britain during the First World War. (2007). Ashgate Publishing.com.
Janet S.K. Watson. Fighting Different Wars: Experience, Memory, and the First World War in Britain. Cambridge University Press (2007).
Susan R. Grayzel. “The Outward and Visible Sign of her Patriotism: Women Uniforms and National Service during World War I. 20th Century British History. (8 No 2, 1997).