The Cavalry Maiden

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The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars
by Nadezhda Durova

I thought I'd share with you a few excerpts from a book I recently read, The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars by Nadezhda Durova, the first female officer in the Russian military. She disguised herself as a man and ran away from home to join the cavalry. Although she was from a well-to-do family and had a comfortable life, it is easy to see why she left. Women had very little freedom in 18th century Russia, especially upper-class women. They were chaperoned at all times, could not live or travel by themselves, and only certain activities (mostly sedate ones) were considered appropriate for them. Durova ruins her needlework, runs away at night to explore the woods, she "thirsted for dangers and longed to be surrounded by them." Although she does not mention this in her narrative, she did marry and bear a son, but returned to her father's house, presumably after some dispute with her husband. She ran away from her father's house at 23, not at 16 as she describes in her journals. Very little is known about her marriage; presumably she censored her journals because her readership would not accept a narrative about a runaway wife and mother.

Surprisingly, Durova's journals are less about disguising her sex than simply about serving in the cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars. Therefore this book is less of interest to feminists than to those who are interested in 18th and early 19th century cavalry warfare. It is an interesting snapshot of life in the military, which Durova describes as a great deal of marching, waiting, freezing, starving, and generally being uncomfortable, interspersed with periods of battle and rest and relaxation in the great houses in which the cavalry were quartered.

Being from a noble family, Durova is permitted to choose her form of service, though she will have to provide documentation of her nobility. She joins the Polish Horse; and at first does not distinguish herself in the cavalry. Unable to withstand the severe sleep deprivation of life on the march, she often falls asleep and is left behind when her unit moves off. She also has a tendency towards wandering, sometimes into the danger of battle, to satisfy curiosity. And her compassion for the wounded is both severely reprimanded and later commended. Early in her military career, she rescues a fallen officer:

I caught sight of several enemy dragoons surrounding a Russian officer and knocking him off his horse with a pistol shot. He fell, and they prepared to hack at him as he lay. Instantly I rushed towards them with my lance tilted. I can only imagine that this scatterbrained audacity frightened them, because in a flash they abandoned the officer and scattered.

She gives the wounded man her horse, and later is chastised by her superior for this act of compassion, as well as for falling asleep after two days on the march without food or rest:

At Guttstadt in the heat of battle, you decided to give up your horse to some wounded man or other….They let you go into Heilsberg for half an hour, and you settled down by the fireplace and went to sleep, at a time when even to think about sleeping was impossible—that is, impermissible. A soldier has to be more than human. In this calling there is no question of age: he has to carry out his duties the same way at seventeen and at thirty and at eighty. I advise you to die on your horse and in the ranks, or else I warn you that you will either be taken prisoner in disgrace or killed by marauders or worst of all, considered a coward.

Durova's tendency to wander into the heat of battle out of curiosity causes her to be sent to the wagon trains along with the wounded men, to her great shame. But later, her rescue of the wounded officer is considered an act of bravery and compassion, and after rescuing another officer, she gains a reputation for valor. She is invited to meet Emperor Alexander, who says to her, "I have heard that you are not a man. Is this true?" To her surprise, she sees that he is blushing, and he appears to her to be modest and shy. He wants her to return home; it was her father's special request to Alexander to find his daughter. But she is so distressed at that notion that he permits her to remain in the cavalry, promotes her to officer, and gives her his name to bear, Aleksandrov. She admires the Emperor a great deal, and he becomes a patron to her, providing her with financial support during the campaign.

On their second meeting, the Emperor asks for details about the officer she rescued. It turns out that his is a famous name and that "my fearlessness on this one occasion did me more honor than everything else during the campaign, because it was based on the greatest of virtues—compassion." The Emperor awards her the Cross of St. George for her deed.

Although Durova does not fear battle, she does experience other kinds of fear, of harsh elements, hunger, being lost, and particularly of wolves. Prone to wandering off by herself at night, she hears the cries of wolves on several occasions. She ponders:

Why is it that in battle, within sight of thousands of horrible deaths nearby, there was no trace of fear in my soul? What does it mean? Are not pain, torment, death just the same whether they come from a bullet or enemy saber or from the teeth and claws of a ferocious beast? I cannot rationally fathom the real reason either for my fear or my fearlessness. Can it really be because death on the battlefield is linked with glory and death in the field among wolves only with pain?

This was a very different world for the military. Soldiers were quartered in private homes as a matter of course. One of her more unpleasant duties is to collect hay from farms for the military. In exchange, farmers were give vouchers which they could redeem, but many were unwilling to do so, in which case, the military would seize the supplies. But officers were given a great deal of respect as defense against Napoleon's invasion was widely supported. Quote:

....how could he resolve to come and conquer a vast, rich nation, one famed for the magnanimous spirit and selflessness of its nobility, the unshakable bulwark of the Russian throne, and for its well-ordered host of troops, whose strict discipline and courage, physical strength, and sturdy constitution allow them to withstand all hardships; a nation that includes as many peoples as it does climates and above and beyond all this, is buttressed by its faith and toleration? The French are a foe worthy of us, noble and courageous, but evil fate in the guides of Napoleon is leading them into Russia. Here they will lay down their heads, and their bones will be scattered and their bodies rot.

Durova was wounded once, and distinguished herself leading a minor skirmish in which she captured several French officers as prisoners-of-war, in addition to saving two wounded officers from death. She did not suffer a serious injury nor kill vast numbers of the enemy; in fact, she apparently did not take any lives in the course of her military career. Although her service record is not as heroic as many others, she was widely considered to be a brave and valiant officer, and according to her account, the men under her leadership probably knew that she was not a man, but by the time they realized this, it no longer mattered, because they would have followed her anywhere.