Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-06-22
WOMAN is COLONEL
IN RUSSIAN ARMY
Wounded Twice While Leading Cos
sacks, She Has Received Cross
of St, Georoe.

sacks, She Has Received Cross
of St. George.
LONDON.--Militant feminism Of a
genuinely heroic sort is exemplified in
the person and exploits of woman
who is colonel in the Russian army.
She is Col. Alexandra Koudasheva, in
command of the Sixth Ural Cossack
Regiment.
Before distinguishing herself in dar-
ing raids against the Germans in East
Prussia, Nine. Kudasheva was known
throughout the empire for having COM
pleted what is reported to have been
the longest horseback ride ever under
taken by a woman. She rode from
Hardin through Manchuria, Siberia
and the forests of European Russia to
Petrograd, covering in all 5000 miles.
In her diary of this trip Nine. kou-
dasheva tells of her long ride and the
trials endured by her and her sturdy
Cossack pony MONGOLIA. This horse
was caught wild on the Siberian step
pes and tanned by the rider. The adj
venture was free from dramatic Incl
dent, the main difficulties being IA
tigue, desert heat, the horror of the
gloom and solitude of trackless forests,
and dangerous looking men encoun-
tered in places where no protection
was possible beyond what she could
give herself.
81 have felt just as safe in the unin-
habited deserts of Siberia as l do on
the streets of Moscow or PetrOgrad,"
writes Nine. Koudasheva, "simply be-
cause I have absolute confidence in
my ability to command men, whether
the Cross of St. George, the V. c. of
When a woman discovers her feminine
powers she can conquer any man."
On arriving in Petrograd Nine. Kou-
dasheva dined with the Cars family.
She presented her pony Mongolia to
the Emperor and received in return
one of his Majesty's favorite riding
horses.
At the outbreak of the war Nine.
Koudasheva joined the Cossack regi-
ment in which her husband had served
years ago. She was wounded twice
IN encounters in East Prussia, received
as highway robbers in wild forests
Russia, for bravery, became a Lieu
tenant and finally a Colonel. She has
also been promised the military pen
sion which her husband, who died sew
eral years ago, failed to receive.
Accounts of Col. Koudashevas eX-
PLOTS, printed in Russian newspapers,
show her to be woman of refinement,
a lover of sports and possessed of
talent for music Her letters and diary
indicate that she has no mean ability
with her pen. While still Lienten.
ant, Col. Koudasheva wrote thus of a
sortie at night, made to learn the
strength of the enemy:
at was a spectral moonlight night
of the fall. A cutting wind whistled
and moaned around the ruins of the
village in which there had been so
much human joy before and so much
misery after the battle. l was riding
with a company of %. In the dead and
solemn bowl of hill that rose before
US mysterious lights, like magic sig
nails, flashed here and there. Each in
dictated a hidden battery.
"As we galloped on we could see the
road strewn with broken boxes, KNAPP
sacks, household implements, dead
men and horses which the enemy had
left behind in their hurried retreat.
'EXcellency,' whispered my orderly. 4
see there beyond the hills moving
dot. 1t may be the head of dady,'
as we called the Germans. We could
now see the first line of the enemy's
trenches in the moonlight.
Il leveled my rifle, Cimed, fired. The
dot became black figure which rose,
staggered and fell. He was so PAGES
away. We rode on and beheld gray
ribbon of trenches stretched in both
directions before us, ribbon that
both fascinated and terrified us. 1t
was the home of death. More black
dots moving toward the spot where
the first had disappeared were visible.
"A few figures evolved from the
SlOoul ian lo"olNo poso
and girls prepared for salvo. They
aimed, l whispered the command to
fire and the figures either fell or ran
back behind the ribbon. A dazzling
light flashed at top hill and the bat
terry of the enemy opened fire on us.
Their machine guns crashed through
the silence with their trip-hammer
song of death.
"Nu-ka, Misha. tickle the dadies,
quick!' remarked one of the soldiers
near me. We began firing. We must
have wounded or killed a hundred or
more; whereupon we turned and rode
back to headquarters. We so shelf
cred ourselves that none of our party
was lost"
Nine. Koudasheva gives in a letter
what may be the first description by
woman of her experiences under fire.
She writes: "a new life of feeling
and thinking begins for woman on
the battlefield When she feels the in
visible fingers of fate close upon her
throat, the problems that interested
her before and the feelings that occu-
pied her in peaceful feminine activity
vanish. 1t is not the thrill of sport,
nor the horror of being killed that
takes hold of her mind on the firing