Maria Leontievna Bochkareva (July 1889 – 16 May 1920; , née Frolkova (Фролко́ва), nicknamed Yashka) was a Russian soldier who fought in World War I and formed the 1st Russian Women's Battalion of Death. She was the first Russian woman to command a military unit. Early life Maria Frolkova was born to a peasant family in Nikolskoye in July 1889. Her father was a sergeant in the imperial army who fought in the Russo-Turkish War. She left home at sixteen to marry Afanasy Bochkarev. They moved to Tomsk, Siberia, where they worked as labourers. Her husband abused her, causing her to leave him. She found a job as a servant to employers who coerced her into working in their brothel. They moved her to Sretensk where Maria began a relationship with a local Jewish man named Yakov (or Yankel) Buk. She and Buk opened a butcher shop, but in May 1912 Buk was arrested for larceny and sent to Yakutsk. Bochkareva followed him into exile, primarily on foot, where the couple established another butcher shop. Buk was caught stealing again and sent to Amga in 1913. Once again Bochkareva followed him. Buk began drinking heavily and became abusive. Military career At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Bochkareva left Buk and returned to Tomsk. In November, she was rejected by the 25th Tomsk Reserve Battalion of the Imperial Russian Army. The commander suggested that she try joining the Red Cross instead. When she insisted that she wanted to fight with the men, the commander helped her compose a telegram to Tsar Nicholas II requesting his personal permission. When she obtained his approval, she underwent three months' training and was sent to front-line duty with the 5th Corps, 28th Regiment of the Second Army, stationed at Polotsk. She was decorated for rescuing fifty wounded soldiers from the field. After she was wounded in the arm and leg, Bochkareva worked as a medical sister until she returned to the front as a corporal in charge of eleven men. She suffered another injury that left her paralyzed for four months. After she recovered, she returned to the front as a senior non-commissioned officer delivering supplies to a platoon of seventy men. Men of the regiment treated her with ridicule or sexually harassed her until she proved her courage in battle. Eventually, she became exhausted from her physical injuries and lost interest