“She was presented to Mr. Kerensky for her bravery, and after hearing all her experiences, the Minister of War asked what wish she would like to have granted. She straightway said: ‘I want to form a woman’s volunteer battalion, which is to lead men into battle if they will not go of themselves.’ The idea was approved by Kerensky, and, with the sanction of the commander-in-chief, the battalion was formed.” There were 300 girls, most of them being recruits from the higher educational academies and secondary schools, with a few peasants, factory girls and servants. There were a few married women, but none with children were accepted. They ranged from 18 to 28 years in age and were of good physique, most of them pretty and of refined appearance. They wore their hair short, or their heads entirely shaved. They wore as uniform a soldier’s khaki blouse, short breeches, stockings, heavy soled shoes and forage cap. It was a mixed battalion in the matter of class; with the peasant and the factory girl marched the daughters of noble families, society women, writers, etc., for it was in the universities and schools that the Russian revolution found its most earnest advocates. These were the women who in action near Vilna that terrible July day exhibited great courage and coolness, and did such heroic service in the midst of a wavering and weakening, cowardly, panic-stricken body of troops that they have hardly a parallel in all history. Marie Golokbyova, a member of the battalion but eighteen years old, who enlisted from the high school, has told of the first engagement of the fighting girls. THEIR FIRST ENGAGEMENT “We went into action a fortnight after our arrival at the front under heavy German cannon fire. Given the order to advance, we rushed out of our trench. Feeling no sense of danger, we dashed toward the enemy in the wood. The machine guns began knocking over my companions. We were ordered to lie down. I noticed those at the front with me were all women. The men were further back. “I began shooting, the gun kicking my shoulder so hard that it is still blue and stiff. I was glad when we were ordered to charge the machine guns in the woods. We paid dearly, but we held on, and by night our scouts discovered the machine gunners and we shelled them out. “After the first attack I was attached to a machine gun, carrying ammunition to an advanced position under the fire of hidden German machine guns. We were advancing and constantly in danger of capture by the Germans. On one trip over newly captured ground I saw what I considered a wounded German officer lying on the ground. I went to help him with my gun in my right hand and the machine gun ammunition in my left. “Seeing me, he jumped to his knees and pulled out his revolver, but before he could shoot I dropped the ammunition and killed him.