Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-30
mem SOLDIERS
READY FOR DEATH
,asia's Feminine Fighters
|rworn to Suicide Rather
\ Than Be Prisoners
MINDED INTERVIEWED
asant Girl Thrusts Teuton
Ihrough With Bayonet, Shoot
ing Him at Same Time
lnuNDED INTERVIEWED
sv WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD


russia's women soldiers have pledged
\. ..,.e,ves to take their own lives rather
-. hecome German war prisoners. Each
IAN soldier carries a ration of cyanide
,o,assiun,. to be swallowed in event of
r.,sure The members of the women regi-
-.nts. now constantly increasing. agreed
~ death was to be preferred to the fate
~ would probably meet at the hands of
Z, Germans.
sns Legion of Death fighters are good
>nlsrs" / learned this today when talked
( a Ave of them, now in hospital near here,
@6erIng from shell shock. From a
mans lips 1 heard how she had run q
Ssrman through with her bayonet. firing
~ rife at the same time. From others /
Serd how these women and girls, fresh
am comfortable homes and universities,
Int leaping over mangled, bloody bodies
/ 4 the charge with enemy shells bursting
/ a about them.
But these narrowing experiences of the
uouen tghters have steeled them and hun
f,ds of other girls to new determination
Z see 1t through. Girl soldiers drilling
4 the streets are now common sight in
pstrograd. Huge crowds gather daily about
ka engneers school, where 5000 girls ara
Noscow, 1000 more are training, while Kiev
"a odessa have smaller bands. Premier
Yrensky has also authorized the forma-
~ fIon of women marine detachments and has
nomsed to assign them to ships. The new
uomen commands attempt no sort of dec
nation. Their heads are shaved and they
vsar the regulation uniform, including the
4 Navy, ugly army boots.
4 PARALYzED BY SHELL SHOCK
The five women fighters I visited at the
|nppital were partially paralyzed by shell
6hcck. One of them, a peasant girl, smiled
1ogously as she pointed to German helmet
y the bed beside her. 1t was the first war
1 hgse of Russian woman.
Il saw German in front of me as I ran
inward with the others in the charge" she
tid us. "It was his life or mine I raised
~ rife. 1 plunged with all my strength
y stabbed him. The bayonet went deep
| hto his body At the same moment 1
pulled the trigger. He dropped-dead.
men took his hat as souvenir"
The girl soldier smiled with delight.
y What was the battle like?" I asked an
elher Of the legionaries.
Il was very nervous just before the
aarge" she replied. I'VE knew the order
vas coming and naturally we were just
little scared. But as soon as the orders
IN 80 forward came we forgot everything
Etlss in the advance
Il could hear our girls yelling and shout
hg throughout the march forward. None
4 \ us were afraid once we got started. We
we're in the midst of a great fusillade of
bots. Then terrific big shells began break
hs all around us.
JUMPED OVER CORPSES
/ I'VE were again frightened a little when
I've first saw dead men about But before
very long we were jumping over bloody
sorpses and quickly forgot all about them"
we couldn't tell what was going on any
vhre" said a third girl in describing the
anal stages of the battle.
Commander Bochkoreva was everywhere
\ our mids urging us to fight and die like
Tnl Russian soldiers"
Then the girl told how the Legion took It's
1fst prisoners.
-As we ran forward we suddenly came
1pon bunch of Germans Immediately
mead of U.S. 1t was only second until
hey were right in our midst or, rather, until
Eys were all around them. They saw they
we're caught and threw down their rifles,
holding up their hands. They were terribly
fightened.
F" Good God, women =" they exclaimed.
We saw wounded soldiers raising them
esives on their elbows and shooting in
Ajected another wounded girl I'VE just
brgot ourselves entirely. We were simply
Russia fighting for her life"
The loss of Lena. the most popular men,
~ OF our company was keenly felt by all
I6 u.s." she added soberly. During the
'lattle Lena heard that Commander Bosh-
hreva had been killed She hurried for
Sard into the shell and fire, saying she was
Doing to find her. We saw her go through
'ene space literally strewn with the explod-
|mg shells. Then, through the smoke and
sarnes we saw her blown to fragments.
n I'VE also lost Sonia. She used to be
uusician with the Romanoff concert or
2s. A''0"' one was N'''e0 0' ""'""' s'A
Il Petrograd has not yet seen the full cas-
nalty list Of the Legion of Death. None has
len published. From what the girls say
sowever, 1t appears that at least dozen
sk shells struck squarely in their midst,
1uing perhaps twelve girls and wounding
vice as many more.
five Of the German prisoners the girls
Sptured were women. wearing the German
oidier's uniform.
. The number of women in all armies on
me eastern front is believed to be growing
Readily.
. Mrs. Pankhurst, the British suffragist
sAoer, thinks 1t only natural that this
mould occur
Ahe russian women" she said today,
~ stepping into the breach as women al
y.ys do when men need them"
Aussias women are fighting the menace
what remains of civilization" declared
<sOIessor Ross. of the University Of Wis
AZ returned from the hospital where I
the paralyzed girls, met a new COM
or women marching hriskly through
street. They were ready for the firing
,s ready to give their lives In battle and.
Sn their little ration Of cyanide, ready to
~ their own lives to avoid worse than
stn at the hands of the enemy.