The following is a summary of some of my preliminary
findings on the Russian all-women’s fighting force known as “The Battalion of
Death” on wartime American screens. Though part of a larger project, I offer it
here as a counter point to non-fiction films of the Great War screened in class
and discussed in Abel’s article. Histories of The First World War often mention
this enigmatic all female military unit, but film studies has yet to address this
subject.
In 1917, the Russian army began to admit women into the
armed forces in combat positions. Women were then gathered into to all-female combat
units or battalions. The Battalion of Death was the most famous but as many as
5,000 women may have served in these units. The American public found this new
fighting force and its leader Maria Bochkarieva fascinating for many reasons.
American women could serve in the army and navy but only as yeomen or nurses.
However, many believed women would have to fight if fears of U.S. invasion from
Mexico ever came to fruition. In 1917, when the Russian force appeared, the U.S.
had just entered the war in response to this perceived threat of invasion. It
is, therefore, not surprising that newspapers of the time reported on the maneuvers
and bravery of the Battalion of Death so frequently.
The film world was not immune to the sensation. America’s
leading ladies were donning military-like garb with increasing frequency for
films and liberty loan drives. See: "Warriors-
Reel and Real" from Film Fun Sept, 1917.
The existence of this female fighting force lent a
sense of credibility to these performances while also providing the film industry and American public with another model
for wartime female heroism. For example, a review of DW Griffith’s “Hearts of
the World” in Film Fun saw the film
as “sufficiently stirring to stimulate the organization among the woman of
America of a Battalion of Death” (Film
Fun 352 (August 1918) ). The Battalion of Death also directly inspired
films like Tod Browning’s The Legion of
Death (1918). But where were American audiences encountering the very real Russian
women?
The Russian Battalion of Death also left its mark on
nonfiction film. My preliminary research has found that they appeared in non-fiction
feature length films and newsreels. Here I highlight just a few. One of the
most-heavily promoted non-fiction feature was entitled “The German Curse in
Russia” filmed and directed by Donald C. Thompson during his time in Russia.
Though the film does not deal exclusively with the battalion, advertisements
for the film often feature images of the women. See image below excerpted from
the following article
from Motion Picture Magazine 15.2 (March
1918) and also this
article Photoplay 13 (April 1918)
p. 32.
Thompson, the war photographer for Leslie’s Weekly, initially distributed the film in the United States under the following titles: Bloodstained Russia, German Intrigue, and Treason and Revolt. It became The German Curse in Russia once it was picked up by the Pathé exchange. Thompson heavily publicized the film in the trade press and mainstream newspapers. A search of archive.org’s holdings reveals that Thompson also published at least three heavily illustrated book-length accounts of his trip to Russia to compliment his film. The first is simply titled Donald Thompson in Russia (New York: The Century Co., March 1918). Both Blood Stained Russia (New York: Leslie-Judge Co. 1918) and From Czar to Kaiser: the Betrayal of Russia (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Page and Co, 1918) open with a dedication and image of Maria Bochkarieva “the Joan of arc of Russia.” The text below her image tells us she was the wife of a peasant who petitioned to join the army in his stead after he was killed. In both editions the caption states that: “She suffered many hardships and proved herself a good soldier. She was several times decorated for bravery, once for rescuing men who were caught on barbed wire, she herself being wounded.” Thompson’s film also captured a meeting between the Russian leader and the famously militant British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. This photograph of that meeting is included in his books.
Though the survival status of Thompson’s film is unknown, British Pathé’s website features two short clips of footage of the women’s Battalion of Death.
Click to view: soviet-womens-battalion
Click to view: russian-womens-battalion
Since Thompson’s film was eventually affiliated with Pathé through the exchange in the U.S. it is possible that these unidentified segments were from the American non-fiction feature but it is just as likely that they come from newsreel footage or other films. Though Thompson’s film was the first to draw my attention because of the heavily illustrated advertisements, other non-fiction films captured these historic women. For instance, Moving Pictures World tells of a different filmmaker working alongside the Red Cross that “Takes Many Pictures of Legion of Death” (Jan. 19, 1918, p. 351). Though a specific title for the final product is not given, the article is further testament to U.S. interest in the group and engagement through non-fiction film.
Kristin N. Harper