Nadiya Durova

Nadiia Andriivna Durova (1783–1866) was a remarkable figure in the history of the Russian army: the first female officer and the first woman awarded the Cross of St. George. She also served in Lutsk. N. Durova was born in September 1783. She herself did not know the day of her birth: “It is not written down anywhere by my father,” she informs her biographer. “And, it seems, there is no need for it. You may designate any day you like.” Her father, Andrei Vasilyevich Durov, was a hussar officer and the owner of a small village in Vyatka Province. Her mother, Nadezhda Ivanovna, came from the family of wealthy Ukrainian landowners, the Aleksandroviches. Having married without parental blessing, Andrei and Nadezhda Durov were expecting only a son, who was supposed to establish relations between the parents and the young couple. Nadezhda Ivanovna perceived the birth of a daughter as a “heavenly punishment” and from the first minutes of the future legend’s life treated her rather critically. The difficult atmosphere of relations in the family and her mother’s constant complaints about fate made a deep impression on N.A. Durova and formed the cast of thought and psyche that later determined her life path: “Perhaps I would finally have forgotten all my hussar antics and become an ordinary girl like everyone else, if my mother had not depicted in the ugliest light the fate of a woman..., woman is the most unhappy, most worthless, and most contemptible creature in the world! My head reeled from this description, and I decided, even if it cost me From an early age, Nadiya Durova learns to ride horses and handle weapons. Purely girlish activities (by the norms of that time), which her mother tried to force her into, aroused disgust in her. Her first attempt to free herself from her mother’s authority was marriage to the official V. Chernov. In 1803, Durova gives birth to a son. But the marriage was unsuccessful, and even in later memoirs the cavalry maiden mentions neither her marriage nor her son (already in her later years, Nadiya Durova rejects her son’s attempts to establish family relations with her; she even refuses to let him call her mother). On September 17, 1806, Durova secretly left her family, disguised herself in men's clothing and calling herself Alexander Vasilyevich Sokolov, and joined a Cossack regiment in order to reach the location of the regular troops with it. In Grodno, Durova enlists as a “comrade,” that is, a rank-and-file soldier of noble birth, in the Konnopolsky Uhlan Regiment. “Freedom, the precious gift of heaven, has finally become my destiny forever,” she would write later. An interesting document testifies to N. Durova’s biography of that time—“Formulary List of Comrade Sokolov of the Konnopolsky Regiment, November 6, 1807:” Names: Comrade Oleksandr Vasyliovych Sokolov How old: 17 Measure: 2 arshins 5 vershoks What distinguishing features does he have: swarthy, pockmarked face, light brown hair, brown eyes From what estate: From the Russian nobility of Perm Governorate, of the same district. Has no peasants, did not present evidence of nobility. In service since: March 1807. Throughout the entire service, where and when was he on campaigns and in engagements against the enemy: In Prussia, 1807 (24.05, 25.05, 28.05, 29.05, 02.06). Having received a letter from his daughter, her father A.V. Durov is trying through higher authorities to bring her home. He shows particular persistence in this matter not only because he loved his daughter, but also because in the spring of 1807 his wife, N.I. Durova, died, and he, feeling late remorse, is deeply distressed by this loss and by the state of his loneliness. On December 31, 1807, Durova appeared before the Russian Emperor Alexander I. The Emperor initially intended to reward her and return her to her parents' home, but after Durova's request to remain in the army, he ordered her to be called by his name, Alexandrov, which in itself was a fact of good will, and ordered her to be enrolled in the aristocratic Mariupol Hussar Regiment. Alexander I also awarded the cavalry maiden the Cross of St. George for saving an officer on the battlefield. After serving three years in the hussars in Volhynia, Durova is transferred to the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment. Already as a second lieutenant of the Lithuanian Regiment, during the Patriotic War of 1812 she follows the entire route of the Russian army to Tarutino. In the Battle of Borodino, Durova receives a concussion from a cannonball. On August 19, 1812, she is promoted to the rank of lieutenant. After the abandonment of Moscow, she briefly serves as an adjutant to the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, M. I. Kutuzov. In 1816, after serving for 10 years, Durova retired with the rank of staff captain. Probably, throughout her entire life, the Cavalry Maiden kept a diary. But only in 1835 did she dare to publish her notes. Alexander Pushkin himself assisted her with this. "Notes of a Cavalry Maiden", first published in 1836, were a great success, although few of her contemporaries believed that Durova was a real, not fictional, heroine. N.A. Durova died in Yelabuga (now Tatarstan, Russia) in 1866. She was buried with military honors as a Knight of St. George. Oleksii Zlatohorskyi