page_title: Women in the military
section_title: Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Women in the military / History / World War I / Russia
caption_attribution_description: English: Soviet Poster Русский: Работницы, берите винтовку!
context_page_description: Women have served in the military in many different roles in various jurisdictions throughout history.
  Since 1914, in western militaries, women have served in greater numbers and more diverse roles than before. In the 1970s, most Western armies began allowing women to serve in active duty in all military branches. In 2006, eight countries conscripted women into military service. In 2013, Norway became the first NATO country to draft women, as well as the first country in the world to conscript women on the same formal terms as men. In 2017, neighboring Sweden followed suit and in 2018, the Netherlands joined this line-up.
  In 2018, only two countries conscripted women and men on the same formal conditions: Norway and Sweden. A few other countries have laws allowing for the conscription of women into their armed forces, however with some difference such as service exemptions, length of service, and more.
context_section_description: The only nation to deploy female combat troops in substantial numbers was Russia. From the onset, female recruits either joined the military in disguise or were tacitly accepted by their units. The most prominent were a contingent of front-line light cavalry in a Cossack regiment commanded by a female colonel, Alexandra Kudasheva. Others included Maria Bochkareva, who was decorated three times and promoted to senior NCO rank, while The New York Times reported that a group of twelve schoolgirls from Moscow had enlisted together disguised as young men. In 1917, the Provisional Government raised a number of "Women's Battalions", with Bochkareva given an officer's commission in command. They were disbanded before the end of the year. In the later Russian Civil War, they fought both for the Bolsheviks (infantry) and the White Guard.
caption: Russian poster from Russian Civil War years
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