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Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies
Записки Кавалерист-девицы
Дурова Надежда Андреевна (1783-1866) - русский писатель, прославившаяся, как первая русская женщина-офицер оставила свои армейские воспоминания в «Записках Кавалерист-девицы».
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1836
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About the author
Nadezhda Durova
16 books5 followersNadezhda Andreyevna Durova (Russian: Наде́жда Андре́евна Ду́рова) (September 17, 1783 – March 21, 1866), also known as Alexander Durov, Alexander Sokolov and Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov, was a woman who, while disguised as a man, became a decorated soldier in the Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic wars. She was the first known female officer in the Russian military. Her memoir, The Cavalry Maiden, is a significant document of its era because few junior officers of the Napoleonic wars published their experiences, and because it is one of the earliest autobiographies in the Russian language.
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August 9, 2017
Già soltanto il libro come oggetto, non può non affascinarmi: carta spessa e ingiallita, Prezzo Lire 8.000, chissà in che magazzino ha soggiornato prima che IBS me lo spedisse. E poi la storia, è così avvincente (oltre che così vera) che a paragonarla al celebre cartoon da altri citato mi sembrerebbe proprio di svilirla. Il titolo stesso meriterebbe di restare "La cavalleria femminile", più pacato e meno ammiccante, e al tempo stesso più comprensivo del valore storico e letterario di tale opera.
Ci sono storie, anche parzialmente reali, come in "Vergine giurata" della Dones, dove una donna si ritrova a vivere da uomo per necessità. In altre storie, come "Creatura di sabbia" di Tahar Ben Jelloun, c'è un padre che, desiderando talmente tanto il figlio maschio, finisce per negare l'evidenza e cresce la femmina come se fosse un maschio. Qui non c'è nulla di tutto ciò: Nadezda era solo insofferente alle limitazioni, all'incasellamento dei ruoli e ad una madre che a sua volta non sapeva esprimerle affetto e ha generato così un circolo vizioso che ha portato alla ribellione e alla fuga della giovane.
L'autobiografia si apre dunque con alcuni episodi, siamo verso il termine del diciottesimo secolo, relativi all'infanzia di una "signorina" dal carattere vivace ed esuberante che mal si accompagna alle convenzioni della sua epoca e della sua classe, la quale infine fugge di casa per aggregarsi all'esercito.
Si prosegue con un racconto piuttosto dettagliato e fedele circa i giorni del suo arruolamento e le sue prime battaglie: questo resoconto è molto sincero perché la Durova non cerca di rendere le sue gesta più eroiche di quanto non siano state, ammette con franchezza i propri errori, le sciocchezze e le dimenticanze.
L'aspetto negativo di tutto questo sono i vuoti, è quel che manca: quando narra in prima persona, la Durova dice di essere fuggita di casa a sedici anni, ma le note in postfazione dicono ben altro, la ragazza sarebbe in realtà partita per arruolarsi a venti e passa anni, dopo un matrimonio e un figlio. Un'altra mancanza è l'incontro con lo Zar: le note dicono semplicemente "non è nel volume a nostra disposizione". E infine, mancano dettagli su un aspetto essenziale per tale vicenda: una donna, per quanto bruttina e/o mascolina, per quanto vestita da uomo, anche così salterà primo a poi all'occhio a qualcuno, specie se è proprio l'unica donna immezzo a torme di barbudos. Gli accenni a questo aspetto della vicenda sono invece rarissimi. Per non parlare degli aspetti pratici: andava a nascondersi per tagliare i capelli che crescevano più rapidamente di quelli dei suoi commilitoni? Si isolava ogni qual volta doveva cambiarsi e anche solo in parte denudarsi? Come se l'è smazzata col problema delle regole mensili che, a quanto mi risulta, esisteva già anche nel diciottesimo e diciannovesimo secolo? Ecco, nessuna menzione circa questi argomenti pratici. Probabilmente queste omissioni sono causate da quello stesso motivo che l'ha spinta a lasciare casa, sono solo il frutto del gusto dell'epoca che non consentiva di parlare apertamente di certe cose, eppure è un peccato perché queste omissioni finiscono per dare una vaga aria di finzione ad una storia che invece è proprio vera che più vera non si può. La postfazione suggerisce che il fatto di aver costruito la biografia operando non solo senza alcuna aggiunta, ma addirittura per sottrazione, serva a conferire maggior valore all'opera e a sottolineare maggiormente i caratteri più veri e profondi dell'autrice e protagonista. Su questo punto non mi trovo molto d'accordo, ma io scrivo questo da stare nel ventunesimo secolo; lei era uno spirito del ventiduesimo secolo impastoiato nelle convenzioni del diciottesimo secolo.
In ogni caso, il valore dell'opera resta fuori da ogni dubbio: le operazioni durante le guerre Napoleoniche sono fedeli, raccontate in direttissima. La descrizione dell'infanzia è aggraziata e vivace, e sempre citando la nota in postfazione di Pia Pera: "…la descrizione dell'infanzia, così strana e poetica, infiammata d'ispirazione cavalleresca e immalinconita dall'oppressione materna." Personalmente, mi fa fatto ripensare ad Aksakov.
Ed è pur vero che in poche pagine si arriva a conoscere e capire bene la Durova che non aveva il benché minimo senso del protagonismo, "fino alla fine […] restò un cavaliere solitario, ispirata da un ideale donchisciottesco di protezione degli indifesi e da un profondo senso di compassione per i deboli. Si sentiva in armonia con la natura e le bestie, e parlava soprattutto al suo diario."
Noi oggi siamo ancora qui a discutere se sia più appropriato dire "sindaca" piuttosto che "sindaco", "ministra" piuttosto che "ministro", mentre all'inizio del diciannovesimo secolo c'è stata una persona che ha avuto la forza e il coraggio di fare semplicemente quello che si sentiva di fare, senza pensare nemmeno per un attimo a come si potesse etichettare, a quale parola usare per quel che stava facendo. Ha fatto, e basta. Mi sa che siamo più arretrati noi.
Ci sono storie, anche parzialmente reali, come in "Vergine giurata" della Dones, dove una donna si ritrova a vivere da uomo per necessità. In altre storie, come "Creatura di sabbia" di Tahar Ben Jelloun, c'è un padre che, desiderando talmente tanto il figlio maschio, finisce per negare l'evidenza e cresce la femmina come se fosse un maschio. Qui non c'è nulla di tutto ciò: Nadezda era solo insofferente alle limitazioni, all'incasellamento dei ruoli e ad una madre che a sua volta non sapeva esprimerle affetto e ha generato così un circolo vizioso che ha portato alla ribellione e alla fuga della giovane.
L'autobiografia si apre dunque con alcuni episodi, siamo verso il termine del diciottesimo secolo, relativi all'infanzia di una "signorina" dal carattere vivace ed esuberante che mal si accompagna alle convenzioni della sua epoca e della sua classe, la quale infine fugge di casa per aggregarsi all'esercito.
Si prosegue con un racconto piuttosto dettagliato e fedele circa i giorni del suo arruolamento e le sue prime battaglie: questo resoconto è molto sincero perché la Durova non cerca di rendere le sue gesta più eroiche di quanto non siano state, ammette con franchezza i propri errori, le sciocchezze e le dimenticanze.
L'aspetto negativo di tutto questo sono i vuoti, è quel che manca: quando narra in prima persona, la Durova dice di essere fuggita di casa a sedici anni, ma le note in postfazione dicono ben altro, la ragazza sarebbe in realtà partita per arruolarsi a venti e passa anni, dopo un matrimonio e un figlio. Un'altra mancanza è l'incontro con lo Zar: le note dicono semplicemente "non è nel volume a nostra disposizione". E infine, mancano dettagli su un aspetto essenziale per tale vicenda: una donna, per quanto bruttina e/o mascolina, per quanto vestita da uomo, anche così salterà primo a poi all'occhio a qualcuno, specie se è proprio l'unica donna immezzo a torme di barbudos. Gli accenni a questo aspetto della vicenda sono invece rarissimi. Per non parlare degli aspetti pratici: andava a nascondersi per tagliare i capelli che crescevano più rapidamente di quelli dei suoi commilitoni? Si isolava ogni qual volta doveva cambiarsi e anche solo in parte denudarsi? Come se l'è smazzata col problema delle regole mensili che, a quanto mi risulta, esisteva già anche nel diciottesimo e diciannovesimo secolo? Ecco, nessuna menzione circa questi argomenti pratici. Probabilmente queste omissioni sono causate da quello stesso motivo che l'ha spinta a lasciare casa, sono solo il frutto del gusto dell'epoca che non consentiva di parlare apertamente di certe cose, eppure è un peccato perché queste omissioni finiscono per dare una vaga aria di finzione ad una storia che invece è proprio vera che più vera non si può. La postfazione suggerisce che il fatto di aver costruito la biografia operando non solo senza alcuna aggiunta, ma addirittura per sottrazione, serva a conferire maggior valore all'opera e a sottolineare maggiormente i caratteri più veri e profondi dell'autrice e protagonista. Su questo punto non mi trovo molto d'accordo, ma io scrivo questo da stare nel ventunesimo secolo; lei era uno spirito del ventiduesimo secolo impastoiato nelle convenzioni del diciottesimo secolo.
In ogni caso, il valore dell'opera resta fuori da ogni dubbio: le operazioni durante le guerre Napoleoniche sono fedeli, raccontate in direttissima. La descrizione dell'infanzia è aggraziata e vivace, e sempre citando la nota in postfazione di Pia Pera: "…la descrizione dell'infanzia, così strana e poetica, infiammata d'ispirazione cavalleresca e immalinconita dall'oppressione materna." Personalmente, mi fa fatto ripensare ad Aksakov.
Ed è pur vero che in poche pagine si arriva a conoscere e capire bene la Durova che non aveva il benché minimo senso del protagonismo, "fino alla fine […] restò un cavaliere solitario, ispirata da un ideale donchisciottesco di protezione degli indifesi e da un profondo senso di compassione per i deboli. Si sentiva in armonia con la natura e le bestie, e parlava soprattutto al suo diario."
Noi oggi siamo ancora qui a discutere se sia più appropriato dire "sindaca" piuttosto che "sindaco", "ministra" piuttosto che "ministro", mentre all'inizio del diciannovesimo secolo c'è stata una persona che ha avuto la forza e il coraggio di fare semplicemente quello che si sentiva di fare, senza pensare nemmeno per un attimo a come si potesse etichettare, a quale parola usare per quel che stava facendo. Ha fatto, e basta. Mi sa che siamo più arretrati noi.
February 1, 2013
Nadezhda Durova was 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.
....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.
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.
....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.
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August 17, 2014I read this some years ago. While Durova finesses some of the personal details (presents herself younger and more innocent than she was, i.e. no mention of running from a husband) her writing about her experiences as a cross-dressing Russian soldier among the hussars is fascinating reading.
She is pretty frank about her shortcomings, from her difficulties with lance evolutions to her wandering the perimeter of the battle of Borodino, looking for her unit (she was not the only one totally lost and confused), and other hardships of war.
Leaving this here as a placeholder for a better review when I reread it.
She is pretty frank about her shortcomings, from her difficulties with lance evolutions to her wandering the perimeter of the battle of Borodino, looking for her unit (she was not the only one totally lost and confused), and other hardships of war.
Leaving this here as a placeholder for a better review when I reread it.
Read
January 5, 2024Вот что надо вводить в школьную программу, хотя бы отрывки! Очень много всего интересного и очень увлекательно написано, кончилось просто внезапно.
December 11, 2016
Some people who reviewed Cavalry Maiden short the book as too much riding around and falling asleep or terrible prose. To both I say poppy cock.
I found the shortcomings as part of Russia finding her literary voice and deciding what is "Russian", as opposed to French, Polish, German, or Tarter. Twenty years later Durova sends her journal to Pushkin. The reader must remember this is a journal written by a soldier, it needed to be edited. Pushkin did a first rough cut edit but then died in a duel. Pushkin was unknown when Durova wrote her journals and the literary style Maiden does have must come from Pushkin's limited editing. Durova's brother tried editing her work but he did a workman job. Also the first copies came off the press in 1836. Pushkin has just died and Lermatov has still to write "Hero of Our Time". Russia is still finding out what to write in Russian means. This won't be established until the late 1850's when Tolstoy writes Sevastopol tales. From a readability point Zirin, translator, has done a yeomen job of making this early Russian style readable at all. Taking style and readability aside I do find Durova lacking as an officer.
She does go off to find comfort while her troops have to get on with the drudgery of the march or garrison duty. This is true especially in bad weather. ALSO she leaves her troop to assist an officer who was wounded and in danger of capture. Her superiors say of her she is either a fool or courage's beyond all measure. Her men and superiors do speak well of her to the investigating officer sent by Alexander I. His report gets her presented to the Tsar. So maybe her ability to command was not as impaired as her journal seems to say? Her journal may be the points that she failed on and wrote about as a way to reminder herself not to do that again. Or her failings during the retreat to Moscow and later got her what today would be called a "Letter of Reprimand".(LOR) If so her career would have been ended by such a letter. Even today an officer with an LOR is on borrowed time until he/she must resign their commission. Durova believes that she was passed over for promotion because of her youthful looks. But again in 1808 she is made an officer and by 1816 she has promoted once. With a war on and officers getting killed she should have made Captain. I base this on a 23 year Air Force (AF) career where promotion, even in the modern AF, sometimes resembles a Byzantium maze of boxes to check and positions to be held prior to selection to the next rank. Posting to those positions is based on merit and if Durova lacked the skill/merit she would not be posted. ALSO many times she talks about the Wives of the Regiment. Again 23 years experience: as rank increases your wives skill at tennis, organization in the wives club, cooking etc becomes a larger part of an officers performance report. Durova has no wife and does not participate in the normal social life of her Regiment. This also would have affected her chance to promote. This brings me to the last point why did she write?
I believe that she wrote to deal with the Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) of being a cavalryman in combat. Writing is a common way for PTS patients to deal with our nightmares and anger. By writing it out we see that now what ever it was can NOT hurt us any more and allows us to sleep better. I believe that it is very possible. Durova wrote to keep the memories of what she saw at bay in her sleep. Also that the most graphic images she wrote may have found there way onto Pushkin or her brothers floor. Don't want to scare the public if you want to make a living by writing. Also PTS would explain why she shunned her fellow officers social life in favor of long contemplative walks in the woods or mountains. These became her own way to deal with what she had seen in combat. Her fellow officers drank at these images she walked. And she couldn't join them for fear of revealing her secret. This would also explain why she cries so much over her dead animals. Psychologists call this displacement where the patient substitutes an animal for the people he/she has seen killed and maimed.
Finally, I agree with the translator that Maiden is as good as Babel's Red Cavalry and both are good yarns that should be read. If you are looking for better prose and the same action read Lermontov's "Hero of our Time" but for more raw felling as to being in a line regiment, Maiden is a better read.
I found the shortcomings as part of Russia finding her literary voice and deciding what is "Russian", as opposed to French, Polish, German, or Tarter. Twenty years later Durova sends her journal to Pushkin. The reader must remember this is a journal written by a soldier, it needed to be edited. Pushkin did a first rough cut edit but then died in a duel. Pushkin was unknown when Durova wrote her journals and the literary style Maiden does have must come from Pushkin's limited editing. Durova's brother tried editing her work but he did a workman job. Also the first copies came off the press in 1836. Pushkin has just died and Lermatov has still to write "Hero of Our Time". Russia is still finding out what to write in Russian means. This won't be established until the late 1850's when Tolstoy writes Sevastopol tales. From a readability point Zirin, translator, has done a yeomen job of making this early Russian style readable at all. Taking style and readability aside I do find Durova lacking as an officer.
She does go off to find comfort while her troops have to get on with the drudgery of the march or garrison duty. This is true especially in bad weather. ALSO she leaves her troop to assist an officer who was wounded and in danger of capture. Her superiors say of her she is either a fool or courage's beyond all measure. Her men and superiors do speak well of her to the investigating officer sent by Alexander I. His report gets her presented to the Tsar. So maybe her ability to command was not as impaired as her journal seems to say? Her journal may be the points that she failed on and wrote about as a way to reminder herself not to do that again. Or her failings during the retreat to Moscow and later got her what today would be called a "Letter of Reprimand".(LOR) If so her career would have been ended by such a letter. Even today an officer with an LOR is on borrowed time until he/she must resign their commission. Durova believes that she was passed over for promotion because of her youthful looks. But again in 1808 she is made an officer and by 1816 she has promoted once. With a war on and officers getting killed she should have made Captain. I base this on a 23 year Air Force (AF) career where promotion, even in the modern AF, sometimes resembles a Byzantium maze of boxes to check and positions to be held prior to selection to the next rank. Posting to those positions is based on merit and if Durova lacked the skill/merit she would not be posted. ALSO many times she talks about the Wives of the Regiment. Again 23 years experience: as rank increases your wives skill at tennis, organization in the wives club, cooking etc becomes a larger part of an officers performance report. Durova has no wife and does not participate in the normal social life of her Regiment. This also would have affected her chance to promote. This brings me to the last point why did she write?
I believe that she wrote to deal with the Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) of being a cavalryman in combat. Writing is a common way for PTS patients to deal with our nightmares and anger. By writing it out we see that now what ever it was can NOT hurt us any more and allows us to sleep better. I believe that it is very possible. Durova wrote to keep the memories of what she saw at bay in her sleep. Also that the most graphic images she wrote may have found there way onto Pushkin or her brothers floor. Don't want to scare the public if you want to make a living by writing. Also PTS would explain why she shunned her fellow officers social life in favor of long contemplative walks in the woods or mountains. These became her own way to deal with what she had seen in combat. Her fellow officers drank at these images she walked. And she couldn't join them for fear of revealing her secret. This would also explain why she cries so much over her dead animals. Psychologists call this displacement where the patient substitutes an animal for the people he/she has seen killed and maimed.
Finally, I agree with the translator that Maiden is as good as Babel's Red Cavalry and both are good yarns that should be read. If you are looking for better prose and the same action read Lermontov's "Hero of our Time" but for more raw felling as to being in a line regiment, Maiden is a better read.
February 9, 2021
I am not sure I'd EVER heard of this before I saw a mention in a footnote to Svetlana Alexievich's _The Unwomanly Face of War_, because I'd have hunted it down long ago. This is a memoir that reads like fiction, but fiction too incredible to make up.
Nadezhda Durova was the kind of character you read in modern historical fiction, giving way too much agency to young women. Part of the Russian landed aristocracy, but not a wealthy part of it, she fled her home and the life of a sheltered woman (she had grown up in military camps, always on horseback with her father), dressed as a young Cossack cavalryman. She joined a Cossack unit, riding toward the front to fight Napoleon in 1806, then transferred to a lancers' unit, served later in a hussars' unit, and later still in the uhlans.
While disguised as a man, word finally leaked out because her family had written to the Tsar to bring her back home. She was summoned to the Tsar, cover blown, but she begged him not to send her back. Since she had been awarded medals, and been "mentioned in dispatches" and shown considerable bravery the in campaign, Tsar Alexander relented. He gave her a new name, an allowance to be paid by the prime minister, and orders to a new unit, plus a promotion. And so she continued with her military career through Napoleon's invasion of Russia (she fought at Borodino, holding the ground between the Great Redoubt and Les Flèches) and then again for the campaign of the Hundred Days.
Concussed in one battle, shell-shocked in another (and I mean this in the original form: a cannonball passed so close to her leg that the shockwave bruised her from waist to toe -- which they thought, at the time, meant the ball had actually touched her), she was present at the burning of Smolensk, present at the burning of Moskow, an aide to Kutuzov, and later a friend of Pushkin. It was Pushkin who made her write her memoirs, after which she wrote several novels.
I am telling my students and colleagues: regardless of era, if you are writing a female protagonist acting outside the norms for her gender, this is your baseline primary source. It's only a couple of pages, but she's brilliant on the role of womanhood that she's escaping.
I should note that she slightly fictionalized two aspects of her story. She was no maiden at the outset of the story, she was about 26, and had been married. (Sources are vague about what happened to that relationship.) She took ten years off her age for the memoir, and left out the marriage, probably to avoid being condemned for breaking norms. In any case, one of her problems was that she had a childish face much of her life, and, of course, couldn't grow a moustache in an era of fancy moustaches, so she was held back in her military career because everybody mistook her for being 16. At 36, they took her for 16.
Note that this isn't only unique for being one of the few "Amazon" memoirs of the Napoleonic era, especially in the Russian military, but for being just about the only junior officer memoir. Alexander made it very difficult for commanders to publish memoirs, and we have almost none. There's one of a guerrilla general of the partisans, which was published anonymously, and that's about it. Alexander was jealous of his military leaders, and that has been a great loss to history.
Nadezhda Durova was the kind of character you read in modern historical fiction, giving way too much agency to young women. Part of the Russian landed aristocracy, but not a wealthy part of it, she fled her home and the life of a sheltered woman (she had grown up in military camps, always on horseback with her father), dressed as a young Cossack cavalryman. She joined a Cossack unit, riding toward the front to fight Napoleon in 1806, then transferred to a lancers' unit, served later in a hussars' unit, and later still in the uhlans.
While disguised as a man, word finally leaked out because her family had written to the Tsar to bring her back home. She was summoned to the Tsar, cover blown, but she begged him not to send her back. Since she had been awarded medals, and been "mentioned in dispatches" and shown considerable bravery the in campaign, Tsar Alexander relented. He gave her a new name, an allowance to be paid by the prime minister, and orders to a new unit, plus a promotion. And so she continued with her military career through Napoleon's invasion of Russia (she fought at Borodino, holding the ground between the Great Redoubt and Les Flèches) and then again for the campaign of the Hundred Days.
Concussed in one battle, shell-shocked in another (and I mean this in the original form: a cannonball passed so close to her leg that the shockwave bruised her from waist to toe -- which they thought, at the time, meant the ball had actually touched her), she was present at the burning of Smolensk, present at the burning of Moskow, an aide to Kutuzov, and later a friend of Pushkin. It was Pushkin who made her write her memoirs, after which she wrote several novels.
I am telling my students and colleagues: regardless of era, if you are writing a female protagonist acting outside the norms for her gender, this is your baseline primary source. It's only a couple of pages, but she's brilliant on the role of womanhood that she's escaping.
I should note that she slightly fictionalized two aspects of her story. She was no maiden at the outset of the story, she was about 26, and had been married. (Sources are vague about what happened to that relationship.) She took ten years off her age for the memoir, and left out the marriage, probably to avoid being condemned for breaking norms. In any case, one of her problems was that she had a childish face much of her life, and, of course, couldn't grow a moustache in an era of fancy moustaches, so she was held back in her military career because everybody mistook her for being 16. At 36, they took her for 16.
Note that this isn't only unique for being one of the few "Amazon" memoirs of the Napoleonic era, especially in the Russian military, but for being just about the only junior officer memoir. Alexander made it very difficult for commanders to publish memoirs, and we have almost none. There's one of a guerrilla general of the partisans, which was published anonymously, and that's about it. Alexander was jealous of his military leaders, and that has been a great loss to history.
October 31, 2014
What a wonderful book! I really enjoyed Durova's writing style, her joy and exuberance leapt off the page. I will be seeking out other titles, if they're available. And the introduction by Mary Zirin, explaining her translation, was very helpful. I do think, however, that more people suspected Durova's secret than she believed. So many of the men seem very protective and solicitous towards her. Throughout the book, I shared her utter enthusiasm and I was glad she was able to escape the constraints of her time and follow a path which enriched her life. Also, she wrote a couple of eloquent paragraphs near the end about the love a dog has for its master.
After seeing so many low ratings for this book, I can only conclude a lot of people went in with a preconceived notion of what to expect. It's a journal. Says so in the title. If you want a more in depth look at generals and strategy or a book with a feminist bent, look elsewhere. This is a slice of life about a woman who undertook an extraordinary adventure for her times. A book about a soldier's day to day life, something which often includes more tedium than thrilling and dangerous pursuits. Try to enjoy it for what it is.
After seeing so many low ratings for this book, I can only conclude a lot of people went in with a preconceived notion of what to expect. It's a journal. Says so in the title. If you want a more in depth look at generals and strategy or a book with a feminist bent, look elsewhere. This is a slice of life about a woman who undertook an extraordinary adventure for her times. A book about a soldier's day to day life, something which often includes more tedium than thrilling and dangerous pursuits. Try to enjoy it for what it is.
May 3, 2023
This is a fascinating memoir of the first known female officer in the Russian military. I found it especially interesting that, as Durova went by her male alias for so long, she switched to using masculine grammar in Russian to speak about herself, and that at one point when she went to visit her family, they also switched the way they addressed her.
We tend to think of gender fluidity as a modern concept (or as the current Russian government would claim, "a western invention"), when in fact, historical accounts show us that queer & gender fluid individuals have always existed! Durova also reminded me of one of my all-time favorite fictional characters, Jacky Faber - a young girl who disguises herself as a ship's boy and ends up becoming a pirate. But Durova really lived her adventure, flouting all convention by leaving her marriage to join the military and go into battle against the French.
We tend to think of gender fluidity as a modern concept (or as the current Russian government would claim, "a western invention"), when in fact, historical accounts show us that queer & gender fluid individuals have always existed! Durova also reminded me of one of my all-time favorite fictional characters, Jacky Faber - a young girl who disguises herself as a ship's boy and ends up becoming a pirate. But Durova really lived her adventure, flouting all convention by leaving her marriage to join the military and go into battle against the French.
November 22, 2010
I wish this book involved more than her riding around Eastern Europe and falling asleep when important things happen. Sadly, I'm not exaggerating.
August 25, 2022
I don't often read memoirs or biography, or books about war, but I came across the name Nadezhda Durova a couple years back when I was researching Marina Tsvetaeva and Natalie Goncharova, and my interest was piqued as a queer feminist.
It did not disappoint. Aleksandr Andreevich, the name the author went by later in life, writes an intriguing, at times very amusing, journalistic/epistolic account of his time in the military.
In addition, it was fascinating to read as a trans/queer person. I will not say that Durova/Andreevich was trans, as the word is a more modern one and Andreevich may not have considered himself trans. HOWEVER, the author was clearly gender variant.
The introduction by Mary Fleming Zirin is well-researched and, I would say, a fair account of Andreevich's life. It borders once or twice on TERF ideaology, (Zirin's statement "it is clear...she identified with her own sex" is a biased opinion, as it is not clear at all, especially considering the audience/market Andreevich was writing to/for) but manages to stay in more neutral territory, which I appreciated and respect.
For those of you who follow my reviews you will know I am very clear about my bias. I am a queer/trans person and I look through literature primarily through a Queer Theory or Critical Race Theory lens, so here is my thoughts based on those biases.
1) I will use Andreevich and he/him pronouns, as later in life that is the name the author insisted on being called and used masculine case endings to refer to himself. Also, the author dressed in a masculine manner. I did consider using they/them pronouns, as Zirin states "Durova approached something like androgyny" and described himself "as an integrated person." There is also a legend that states that the author refused to give a blessing for his child's marriage when called "Mam" but did when addressed as "parent." But I would want to do more research, as I am aware my own biases lean me towards breaking down the binary. Instead I will use he/him as that matches the way the author referred to himself.
2) The moment when Andreevich returns home and the maid Natalja grumbles "I'll never get used to it..." in reference to Andreevich's move from miss to sir, is very relatable to my own trans experience and, I'm sure, to many other's.
3) There is a LOT of classism and racism against Polish people. Like. Good gods. It's almost satirical.
4) This is not legit text analysis, but the author cares a great deal more for animals than for humans, and it reminded me of that Tumblr saying that there is a direct correlation between being a furry and being trans.
5) Andreevich is driven not by gender norms, or even the desire to break away from the gender binary, but is merely driven by the desire for freedom to make choices. This internal drive (at least, the one that we are given by the author, if the author can be trustworthy) is what brings doubt as to how the author personally experienced his/her/their gender. We cannot know, because we can only know what the text tells us, and that text is hampered by public decency laws, societal norms, and the author's desire to give a voice to the problem of female bodied people being trapped within strict expectations/roles. That truth I do not doubt. Regardless of his own gender experience, the author clearly wants to make room for women to do more, be more, be free from societal restraints.
6) Andreevich regularly napping in bushes or wandering around battlefields in curiosity is a) hilarious, b) indicative of how much more interesting warfare is than sitting inside a stifled room trying to do needlework (I especially relate to this, as I was absolute garbage at cross-stich), and c) possible evidence that the author had some degree of brain damage. I mean. As a child he was tossed out of a carriage by his mother because he wouldn't stop crying so... It's not outside of the realm of possibility.
I'm sure there are other thoughts wandering around in the back of my head, but those are the main thoughts. All in all a very enjoyable, illuminating, inspiring read and I highly recommend giving it a go, especially if you are interested in woman soldiers and queer theory.
It did not disappoint. Aleksandr Andreevich, the name the author went by later in life, writes an intriguing, at times very amusing, journalistic/epistolic account of his time in the military.
In addition, it was fascinating to read as a trans/queer person. I will not say that Durova/Andreevich was trans, as the word is a more modern one and Andreevich may not have considered himself trans. HOWEVER, the author was clearly gender variant.
The introduction by Mary Fleming Zirin is well-researched and, I would say, a fair account of Andreevich's life. It borders once or twice on TERF ideaology, (Zirin's statement "it is clear...she identified with her own sex" is a biased opinion, as it is not clear at all, especially considering the audience/market Andreevich was writing to/for) but manages to stay in more neutral territory, which I appreciated and respect.
For those of you who follow my reviews you will know I am very clear about my bias. I am a queer/trans person and I look through literature primarily through a Queer Theory or Critical Race Theory lens, so here is my thoughts based on those biases.
1) I will use Andreevich and he/him pronouns, as later in life that is the name the author insisted on being called and used masculine case endings to refer to himself. Also, the author dressed in a masculine manner. I did consider using they/them pronouns, as Zirin states "Durova approached something like androgyny" and described himself "as an integrated person." There is also a legend that states that the author refused to give a blessing for his child's marriage when called "Mam" but did when addressed as "parent." But I would want to do more research, as I am aware my own biases lean me towards breaking down the binary. Instead I will use he/him as that matches the way the author referred to himself.
2) The moment when Andreevich returns home and the maid Natalja grumbles "I'll never get used to it..." in reference to Andreevich's move from miss to sir, is very relatable to my own trans experience and, I'm sure, to many other's.
3) There is a LOT of classism and racism against Polish people. Like. Good gods. It's almost satirical.
4) This is not legit text analysis, but the author cares a great deal more for animals than for humans, and it reminded me of that Tumblr saying that there is a direct correlation between being a furry and being trans.
5) Andreevich is driven not by gender norms, or even the desire to break away from the gender binary, but is merely driven by the desire for freedom to make choices. This internal drive (at least, the one that we are given by the author, if the author can be trustworthy) is what brings doubt as to how the author personally experienced his/her/their gender. We cannot know, because we can only know what the text tells us, and that text is hampered by public decency laws, societal norms, and the author's desire to give a voice to the problem of female bodied people being trapped within strict expectations/roles. That truth I do not doubt. Regardless of his own gender experience, the author clearly wants to make room for women to do more, be more, be free from societal restraints.
6) Andreevich regularly napping in bushes or wandering around battlefields in curiosity is a) hilarious, b) indicative of how much more interesting warfare is than sitting inside a stifled room trying to do needlework (I especially relate to this, as I was absolute garbage at cross-stich), and c) possible evidence that the author had some degree of brain damage. I mean. As a child he was tossed out of a carriage by his mother because he wouldn't stop crying so... It's not outside of the realm of possibility.
I'm sure there are other thoughts wandering around in the back of my head, but those are the main thoughts. All in all a very enjoyable, illuminating, inspiring read and I highly recommend giving it a go, especially if you are interested in woman soldiers and queer theory.
May 19, 2025
It is a safe bet that virtually every army in all of history has had one, and I am willing to bet several women among it fighting forces. Some would have 'arose' from the so called camp followers, women tagging along as part of the baggage train. Some of them wives, some of them for hire companions and just as many providing all manner of legitimate services. One way or another there have been women who have taken up arms. In the US there is the story of Molly Pitcher, believed to have been one of two women, married to one or another colonial artillery man, who stood in for her injured man at the battle of Battle of Monmouth in June 1778 or Fort Washington in 1776. A fair bet is that there were like minded women at both and other battles.
The case of Lieutenant Nadezhda Durova, complete with a commission from Tsar Alexander I, albeit serving under an assumed, male name we are several steps past Molly Pitcher.
The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Female Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars is her account of her life until her unit was returned to peace time service at the end of these wars when at her father's request she resigned to help look after the family holdings.
Hers is an atypical soldier's story not just because she was a woman living as a man, but because she wrote little about her role in the several large and small engagements where she was a front line warrior. Further she writes of almost no analysis of strategy or tactics. She has the kind of unquestioning loyalty to her Tsar and at least the senior most leadership that would leave her little more to say except hurrah for the Russian , and allied armies.
The greatest and most universal truth about war time service is that it consists of large amounts of boredom and minutes of extreme terror. Some how our Maiden manages to relate enough about her fellow soldiers, her most and least favorite horses, the routine of parties, dances and flirtatious gossip that also goes with camp life. There is much of this as hers troop, often on the march, was also often between marches.
To the question, is our Cavalry Maiden, maidenly, a lesbian or asexual? She is both too polite and too discrete to say anything exactly. She was able to share quarters with other officers without any, apparently penetrating her disguise. There are a few hints that she may have had liaisons with wives and daughters among her many civilian hosts, but in that day and time it is likely that the term Lesbian was unknown or if known was extremely unsaid. Hints there may be but discretion is her rule.
Like many readers, I have a few notions. It is not a give away to note that more than a few people came to know knew her secret. At some point, her immediate family , but theirs was a remote village. The Tsar, and at least a few of the court. The Tsar made regular payments of cash to her, via a third member of the court, and her Commander and Chief, the Great General Kutuzov were in the know. Beyond that I will not speculate as part of the fun in reading the book is deriving yourown theories.
The audience for The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Female Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars should be varied, but perhaps select. She it a capable writer, if not a great diarist, if that is the right term. Her story is unique enough to have that as a drawing card. Certainly anyone with an interest in life in service in general or Napoleonic times, this is this book exactly. Is Nadezhda Durova a feminist hero? I cannot say nor am I the right person to make that call. I am sure there is a good movie to made of this book, and I suggest that she is worthy of a wide and varied readership.
The case of Lieutenant Nadezhda Durova, complete with a commission from Tsar Alexander I, albeit serving under an assumed, male name we are several steps past Molly Pitcher.
The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Female Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars is her account of her life until her unit was returned to peace time service at the end of these wars when at her father's request she resigned to help look after the family holdings.
Hers is an atypical soldier's story not just because she was a woman living as a man, but because she wrote little about her role in the several large and small engagements where she was a front line warrior. Further she writes of almost no analysis of strategy or tactics. She has the kind of unquestioning loyalty to her Tsar and at least the senior most leadership that would leave her little more to say except hurrah for the Russian , and allied armies.
The greatest and most universal truth about war time service is that it consists of large amounts of boredom and minutes of extreme terror. Some how our Maiden manages to relate enough about her fellow soldiers, her most and least favorite horses, the routine of parties, dances and flirtatious gossip that also goes with camp life. There is much of this as hers troop, often on the march, was also often between marches.
To the question, is our Cavalry Maiden, maidenly, a lesbian or asexual? She is both too polite and too discrete to say anything exactly. She was able to share quarters with other officers without any, apparently penetrating her disguise. There are a few hints that she may have had liaisons with wives and daughters among her many civilian hosts, but in that day and time it is likely that the term Lesbian was unknown or if known was extremely unsaid. Hints there may be but discretion is her rule.
Like many readers, I have a few notions. It is not a give away to note that more than a few people came to know knew her secret. At some point, her immediate family , but theirs was a remote village. The Tsar, and at least a few of the court. The Tsar made regular payments of cash to her, via a third member of the court, and her Commander and Chief, the Great General Kutuzov were in the know. Beyond that I will not speculate as part of the fun in reading the book is deriving yourown theories.
The audience for The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Female Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars should be varied, but perhaps select. She it a capable writer, if not a great diarist, if that is the right term. Her story is unique enough to have that as a drawing card. Certainly anyone with an interest in life in service in general or Napoleonic times, this is this book exactly. Is Nadezhda Durova a feminist hero? I cannot say nor am I the right person to make that call. I am sure there is a good movie to made of this book, and I suggest that she is worthy of a wide and varied readership.
May 9, 2024
Nadezhda Durova was a protege of Pushkin. He helped her to publish her remarkable story. Twenty years after the events of the book she compiled this somewhat fictionalized and edited version of the diaries that she kept while posing as a man and serving as a cavalry officer in the Napoleonic Wars. It is quite well written, so it is easy to see why Pushkin took her under his wing.
It's all told from a boots on the ground perspective. She took part in great events, and she even met the tsar, who went along with her deception and gave her the officer's commision that she had been unable to get because she could not go to her father to provide the required patent of nobility. She had close dealings with the tsar's famous ministers, Arakcheev and Barclay de Tolly, and she was briefly on the staff of Kutuzov, the great general who defeated Napoleon by letting the Russian Winter destroy the invaders. However, the bulk of the book is about every day events in the life of a cavalry officer stationed at dreary frontier towns, mostly in Poland. But unlike the typical picture of stultifying tedium in most stories about military life in garrison towns, Durova takes pleasure in everything. She is a keen observer of her fellow soldiers and of the local people that she deals with. She takes neverending pleasure in her riding, particularly her first great horse, Alcides, who comes to a tragic end. And she finds joy in the hard repetitive work of a soldier. She is only bored when she goes home on leave. For a military story there is very little fighting. She fights in the Prussian campaign before Napoleon's invasion of Russia, and she fights in the famous Battle of Bordino shortly before Napoleon takes Moscow, where she is injured by a cannon ball, but the description of the actual fighting is limited to paragraph of two or three sentences. In this regard it is very different from typical male descriptions of miltary adventures from Homer to the present that are heavily focused on detailed descriptions of performance in battle and are filled with blood and carnage.
It's all told from a boots on the ground perspective. She took part in great events, and she even met the tsar, who went along with her deception and gave her the officer's commision that she had been unable to get because she could not go to her father to provide the required patent of nobility. She had close dealings with the tsar's famous ministers, Arakcheev and Barclay de Tolly, and she was briefly on the staff of Kutuzov, the great general who defeated Napoleon by letting the Russian Winter destroy the invaders. However, the bulk of the book is about every day events in the life of a cavalry officer stationed at dreary frontier towns, mostly in Poland. But unlike the typical picture of stultifying tedium in most stories about military life in garrison towns, Durova takes pleasure in everything. She is a keen observer of her fellow soldiers and of the local people that she deals with. She takes neverending pleasure in her riding, particularly her first great horse, Alcides, who comes to a tragic end. And she finds joy in the hard repetitive work of a soldier. She is only bored when she goes home on leave. For a military story there is very little fighting. She fights in the Prussian campaign before Napoleon's invasion of Russia, and she fights in the famous Battle of Bordino shortly before Napoleon takes Moscow, where she is injured by a cannon ball, but the description of the actual fighting is limited to paragraph of two or three sentences. In this regard it is very different from typical male descriptions of miltary adventures from Homer to the present that are heavily focused on detailed descriptions of performance in battle and are filled with blood and carnage.
November 9, 2025
This was a good bedside table book. I dipped in for a few pages whenever I wanted to spend time in early-19th-century Russia, heard a good story or two, then dipped out before the monotony of the Russian countryside (and Russian names) pushed me to start skipping ahead.
The historical footnotes and appendices were satisfying — poking enough holes in minor details of the author's story that I felt I could trust the broad thrust of it (and the broad thrust was still astonishing). Hers/his is one of those lives that couldn't be lived today, and while that's likely for the best, it's good to be able to go back and visit.
Observations:
* 90% of war is wandering around looking for the next battle (without starving in the process).
* 90% of most battles is wandering around looking for the enemy.
* Being loud and rude is a decent way to present as a male.
* When someone discovers you aren't male, there's a good chance they'll feel awkward enough not to punish you (even if they are the Tsar). They might not even tell anyone! (It's hard to tell who among the various officers and dignitaries is aware/supportive, aware/awkward, or unaware.)
* If I were a Russian general, I'd want a lot of Durova/Alexandrov types, at least in the cavalry. Even trying to correct for the author's personal bias, they seem like a good soldier: moderately competent, fanatically brave, capable of fighting on low rations, enough muscle for the job.
* Two-thirds of the way through the memoir, the author kills a goose and is shocked by the violence of the action; this was their second war, and the first time they'd spilled any blood. Theirs was a war of mud, cold, heat, hunger, dirt, disease, and dead horses. I've picked up the same vibe from other military literature, sometimes, but this single incident is the most memorable way I've seen it conveyed. I'm glad Pushkin encouraged them to publish!
The historical footnotes and appendices were satisfying — poking enough holes in minor details of the author's story that I felt I could trust the broad thrust of it (and the broad thrust was still astonishing). Hers/his is one of those lives that couldn't be lived today, and while that's likely for the best, it's good to be able to go back and visit.
Observations:
* 90% of war is wandering around looking for the next battle (without starving in the process).
* 90% of most battles is wandering around looking for the enemy.
* Being loud and rude is a decent way to present as a male.
* When someone discovers you aren't male, there's a good chance they'll feel awkward enough not to punish you (even if they are the Tsar). They might not even tell anyone! (It's hard to tell who among the various officers and dignitaries is aware/supportive, aware/awkward, or unaware.)
* If I were a Russian general, I'd want a lot of Durova/Alexandrov types, at least in the cavalry. Even trying to correct for the author's personal bias, they seem like a good soldier: moderately competent, fanatically brave, capable of fighting on low rations, enough muscle for the job.
* Two-thirds of the way through the memoir, the author kills a goose and is shocked by the violence of the action; this was their second war, and the first time they'd spilled any blood. Theirs was a war of mud, cold, heat, hunger, dirt, disease, and dead horses. I've picked up the same vibe from other military literature, sometimes, but this single incident is the most memorable way I've seen it conveyed. I'm glad Pushkin encouraged them to publish!
April 3, 2023
This is a classic of Russian literature, not a giant in the literary world, but a classic nonetheless. Like many other classics (in my opinion,) there are important things about it and it's worth looking at, but most of it is not wildly interesting. I was captivated by the beginning of the book and the description of Durova's oppressed life as a woman and her traumatic relationship with her mother, who threw her out of a moving carriage when she was a baby! The premise of a woman running away from home and pretending to be a man in order to fight in the Napoleonic wars was intriguing.
However, the book is Durova's journal entries and it reads that way. For example, there is no overarching plot or strong cast of characters. Instead, it is mostly endless small stories relating the daily life of a soldier including getting lost alone on rainy nights, dealing with rebellious horses, being a guest in many different homes and describing the various hosts, being either sassy or friendly with other military personnel, and every once in a while hearing rumors about herself; the soldier who is really a woman in disguise. There are not, as one might suppose, very many battle scenes or descriptions of hiding her femininity and it ends rather abruptly.
It's important because it's an amazing true feminist story and it has true historical descriptions of the life of a soldier all over Russia and Europe during the Napoleonic wars. (Though she did change some things!) I learned some neat things but it wasn't interesting the whole way through.
However, the book is Durova's journal entries and it reads that way. For example, there is no overarching plot or strong cast of characters. Instead, it is mostly endless small stories relating the daily life of a soldier including getting lost alone on rainy nights, dealing with rebellious horses, being a guest in many different homes and describing the various hosts, being either sassy or friendly with other military personnel, and every once in a while hearing rumors about herself; the soldier who is really a woman in disguise. There are not, as one might suppose, very many battle scenes or descriptions of hiding her femininity and it ends rather abruptly.
It's important because it's an amazing true feminist story and it has true historical descriptions of the life of a soldier all over Russia and Europe during the Napoleonic wars. (Though she did change some things!) I learned some neat things but it wasn't interesting the whole way through.
September 18, 2020
"I don't know what to call this wild, bestial daring, but it is unworthy of being called fearlessness."
"The staroscina has an eighteen-year-old granddaughter, a pretty girl, but one with the most absurd propensity for falling in love with anyone and everyone—peasant, coachman, valet, cook, officer, general, priest, or monk!"
This account, one of the earliest autobiographical works in Russian literature, was fascinating in different ways. A strained relationship with her often cruel mother (who threw her out of a moving carriage as a baby, no less), and a doting army father, coupled with her longing for free movement seem instant factors in her interest in male-based military life. Yet as much as her account rings genuine, it's also intriguing that she lopped off 7 years from her age, during which she was married and birthed a son, and of which nothing is mentioned. As both the intro and her own observations show, she was not rejecting traditional gender roles, but—whatever the layered reasons—was an individual wishing to serve. This was granted by Tsar Alexander I himself, who was obviously aware of her marriage, and later granted her the Cross of St. George and promoted her.
Setting aside subsequent propaganda, laziness, and oh-so-frequent wishful projection that fuel misinformation, what resonates most is her searching, often amusing spirit and ability to relay her unique experience on her own terms.
"The staroscina has an eighteen-year-old granddaughter, a pretty girl, but one with the most absurd propensity for falling in love with anyone and everyone—peasant, coachman, valet, cook, officer, general, priest, or monk!"
This account, one of the earliest autobiographical works in Russian literature, was fascinating in different ways. A strained relationship with her often cruel mother (who threw her out of a moving carriage as a baby, no less), and a doting army father, coupled with her longing for free movement seem instant factors in her interest in male-based military life. Yet as much as her account rings genuine, it's also intriguing that she lopped off 7 years from her age, during which she was married and birthed a son, and of which nothing is mentioned. As both the intro and her own observations show, she was not rejecting traditional gender roles, but—whatever the layered reasons—was an individual wishing to serve. This was granted by Tsar Alexander I himself, who was obviously aware of her marriage, and later granted her the Cross of St. George and promoted her.
Setting aside subsequent propaganda, laziness, and oh-so-frequent wishful projection that fuel misinformation, what resonates most is her searching, often amusing spirit and ability to relay her unique experience on her own terms.
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July 25, 2021***WHO SUCKED ME IN***
Bookish Topics in their 🌟 Unforgettable Inspiring Women in Literature You Have to Read About 📚 Books About Strong Women 👩👧🙋 video published on YouTube on 4 maart 2021
She was saying that she got asked for book recommendations by female authors from the 19th century. Which was apparently very hard? She explains the reason behind it better than I could but the history nerd in my enjoyed it very much. She did gave two recommendations (the other one did not sound appealing to me but it was: Cancer Ward) and this sounds fascinating. Ok she said this about the author: ''... because she is kinda Russian Mulan''. How does that not sound interesting?
Bookish Topics in their 🌟 Unforgettable Inspiring Women in Literature You Have to Read About 📚 Books About Strong Women 👩👧🙋 video published on YouTube on 4 maart 2021
She was saying that she got asked for book recommendations by female authors from the 19th century. Which was apparently very hard? She explains the reason behind it better than I could but the history nerd in my enjoyed it very much. She did gave two recommendations (the other one did not sound appealing to me but it was: Cancer Ward) and this sounds fascinating. Ok she said this about the author: ''... because she is kinda Russian Mulan''. How does that not sound interesting?
October 15, 2023
Nadezhda Durova was born in 1783. Her father was a Russian general, and her mother came from a wealthy family. Unfortunately, her mother did not like her and was abusive to her as a child. Once, she even threw her out the window of a moving carriage. Her father tended to her with help from his soldiers, who taught her all manner of military things. She did wind up married, but nothing about her husband is mentioned in this book. Apparently, she did not find him or her marriage very impressive. She did, however, love military life. She posed as a male and participated in many military engagements. She saved the lives of two compatriots, loved weapons, and was apparently quite skilled.
I picked this book up on a whim, because I was looking at books on Napoleon. It was a dollar, and I thought that was a decent price, which I stand behind. This painted a really detailed picture of what life in the Russian military during this era was like. I enjoyed the book well enough.
I picked this book up on a whim, because I was looking at books on Napoleon. It was a dollar, and I thought that was a decent price, which I stand behind. This painted a really detailed picture of what life in the Russian military during this era was like. I enjoyed the book well enough.
March 1, 2017
Un librino di grande interesse, breve ma intenso, con una protagonista a dir poco singolare che, avvalendosi di una prosa molto scorrevole, di qualità, a tratti divertente, a tratti drammatica narra, con una naturalezza e veridicità sorprendenti, le memorie di una donna che ebbe il coraggio, in un' epoca in cui la figura femminile era relegata a determinati compiti che erano essenzialmente quelli di moglie e di madre, di prendere in mano la propria vita e fare ciò per cui sentiva di essere nata: la guerra, le imprese belliche, dimostrare il proprio valore combattendo per la Patria senza risparmiarsi. Nella prima parte, che si legge davvero con grande godimento, la Durovna narra quasi con levità, nonostante la gravità di qualche episodio della sua primissima infanzia (quando la madre la buttò letteralmente fuori dal finestrino della carrozza in movimento mettendo a serio rischio la sua vita; la bimba venne poi salvata dal padre ed affidata alle cure del suo reggimento di ussari) del suo burrascoso e opprimente rapporto con questa madre poco amorevole e rigida che voleva imbrigliare la sua esuberanza di ragazzina selvaggia e ribelle, relegandola a quei ruoli per cui le ragazze del suo tempo erano predestinate. Terrorizzata dalla prospettiva di passare il resto della sua vita rinchiusa in una camera tra trine e merletti e lavori al tombolo in attesa di essere maritata, la ragazzina meditò per tutta la sua adolescenza di scappare di casa, unirsi ad un reggimento e iniziare così la sua tanto agognata carriera militare. Cosa che, attraverso varie peripezie, realizzò combattendo durante le guerre napoleoniche in territorio russo in groppa al suo amatissimo Alkid, mostrando un coraggio e una temerarietà non comuni e qualche vulnerabilità legata al suo essere donna e quindi meno resistente fisicamente, ma distinguendosi sempre per la sua profonda umanità e valore, tanto che venne ricevuta dallo zar Alessandro I in persona il quale le diede l'onore di portare il suo nome e la innalzò al grado di ufficiale, assegnandola ad un reggimento di elite. Cosa che poi rifiutò perchè mal tollerava la vita di società e si trovava molto più a suo agio tra gli ulani tra i quali era stata addestrata. Conobbe il famosissimo Generale Kutuzov, eroe di guerra, che la prese molto a ben volere e fino al suo congedo visse la vita che sognò.
In realtà queste memorie tralasciano intenzionalmente episodi significativi della sua giovane vita. Il matrimonio per esempio, che contrasse prima della sua fuga e dal quale nacque un bimbo. Però nulla riuscì a fermare questo suo ardore per la battaglia e queste memorie napoleoniche, genere molto in voga nell'epoca, lo dimostrano chiaramente. Memorie che furono sollecitate e appoggiate da Puskin, il grande scrittore russo, il quale le raccomandò chiarezza e veridicità di stile e che le diederò una grandissima notorietà, tanto da venire contesa nei vari salotti più in voga, un tenore di vita mondana che mal tollerava. Si ritirò ad Elabug e ultimi anni della sua continuò a dedicarli alla scrittura e alla condizione della donna...'
In realtà queste memorie tralasciano intenzionalmente episodi significativi della sua giovane vita. Il matrimonio per esempio, che contrasse prima della sua fuga e dal quale nacque un bimbo. Però nulla riuscì a fermare questo suo ardore per la battaglia e queste memorie napoleoniche, genere molto in voga nell'epoca, lo dimostrano chiaramente. Memorie che furono sollecitate e appoggiate da Puskin, il grande scrittore russo, il quale le raccomandò chiarezza e veridicità di stile e che le diederò una grandissima notorietà, tanto da venire contesa nei vari salotti più in voga, un tenore di vita mondana che mal tollerava. Si ritirò ad Elabug e ultimi anni della sua continuò a dedicarli alla scrittura e alla condizione della donna...'
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August 26, 2022As the journal of a junior military officer, a firsthand account of the Napoleonic wars, and a memoir of a transgender man living in the early nineteenth century, this is a truly remarkable book. Mary Fleming Zirin's notes provide a great deal of valuable context. Aleksandrov's writings are intriguing, if fragmentary in nature, and some of his adventures quite exciting. I can't help but wish more of the blanks were filled in and wonder what he edited out or smoothed over to publish under his female name, but we're lucky to have these journals.
January 11, 2025
В наше время читать подобное нелегко: чрезмерная романтизация военного дела. Вероятнее всего мать действительно повлияла на ментальное состояние дочери, но от токсичного описания того остается неприятный осадок. В остальном практически всё Дуровой воспримается с юношеским наивным восторгом.
В современности мало адекватного нахожу у людей, влюбленных во всё, что коим образом связано с войной и служению государю, а не народу.
11.01.2025
В современности мало адекватного нахожу у людей, влюбленных во всё, что коим образом связано с войной и служению государю, а не народу.
11.01.2025
February 3, 2019
Think Mulan, but set in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. Despite an interesting practical and linguistic approach to gender, most of Durova's tweaked journals read like your average war writing (read: not much happens).
July 18, 2021
An interesting biography. I read it to get an insight into Russian and other eastern European attitudes to women/ servants etc. in the early 19th century. I'm still not sure what I carried on reading it.
September 8, 2017
One of the most fascinating accounts I've ever read.
January 7, 2018
Quite an extraordinary tale of how a girl impersonates a man in the Russian cavalry... but not terribly well written or translated - hard to tell which?
March 18, 2020
Amazing but my interest flagged...
June 3, 2022
A window into a long past era. It was fascinating!
July 15, 2023
Had to read this for a Russian history class. Very good! Would recommend.
January 28, 2025
Required reading. 👎
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October 17, 202448:3. And so God may support you in a mighty success!
August 25, 2015
This was an emotional book for me. Not because the story was crafty (even though it is still good), but because I could empathise with her so much.
From the day she was born, she knew she wanted to be a cavalry soldier. She described infantry as boring and had no interest in it.
Through dangerous battles, she distinguished herself as a fierce, brave soldier, despite lacking some common sense at times.
She preferred her military uniforms over pretty feminine dress, in one instance claiming ‘I enjoyed looking at the pretty dresses the women wear… but mine is better!’
Through her army service, she constantly faces situations where she gets agitated for the fear of being found out about her gender. Even as a man, I could relate to how it feels to get nervous about being ‘found out’.
I found Russian translation to be seamless. The humor in the story is great, it made me laugh many times. The words used to describe her recollection of events are very emotive, describing a dead corpse in a barn as: ‘the sole inhabitant of this dwelling in his eternal rest’
I felt very sad at the end when she chose to leave the Cavalry for her aging father, bidding farewell to the romantic life of swords and good steed and going back to ordinary civilian life.
From the day she was born, she knew she wanted to be a cavalry soldier. She described infantry as boring and had no interest in it.
Through dangerous battles, she distinguished herself as a fierce, brave soldier, despite lacking some common sense at times.
She preferred her military uniforms over pretty feminine dress, in one instance claiming ‘I enjoyed looking at the pretty dresses the women wear… but mine is better!’
Through her army service, she constantly faces situations where she gets agitated for the fear of being found out about her gender. Even as a man, I could relate to how it feels to get nervous about being ‘found out’.
I found Russian translation to be seamless. The humor in the story is great, it made me laugh many times. The words used to describe her recollection of events are very emotive, describing a dead corpse in a barn as: ‘the sole inhabitant of this dwelling in his eternal rest’
I felt very sad at the end when she chose to leave the Cavalry for her aging father, bidding farewell to the romantic life of swords and good steed and going back to ordinary civilian life.
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