Storming the Castle: The World of Dora and the Duchess

Pauline Carey is an actor, playwright, and fiction writer. She is the
author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

During the titanic struggle on the Eastern Front in World War II, the
Russian military and civilian population suffered horrendous casualties,
estimated at between 20 and 40 million dead. Although in recent years
the Russian army has been examined in detail by Western scholars, the
more than 800,000 women who served on the front lines remain largely
neglected. Women served not only as medics but also as machine gunners,
partisans, snipers, and tank commanders.

On the Road To Stalingrad: Memoirs of a Woman Machine Gunner and
Defending Leningrad: Women Behind Enemy Lines are firsthand accounts by
women who fought in battle against the German invaders. Translated and
edited by Kazimiera Cottam, an authority on Russian women in the
military, both books provide personal views of the war.

Of the two, On the Road to Stalingrad gives better testimony to the
savagery of the fighting. Machine gunner Zoya Medvedeva of the 25th
Chapayev Division recounts in her memoirs the defence of the Black Sea
ports of Odessa and Sevastopol from October 1941 to July 1942. Again and
again, Medvedeva recounts how her platoon was wiped out in relentless
battles and hand-to-hand combat. Before the point at which she is
invalidated with a shell splinter in the eye, the reader gains some
understanding of the patriotism and desire for revenge that drove the
defenders to fight against overwhelming odds.

Defending Leningrad, a translation of Ira Konstantinova’s wartime
diary, depicts the immediacy of war, and the writer’s unbridled
patriotism and love for her comrades. Konstantinova fought as a partisan
behind enemy lines, dangerous and costly work. Although she entered as a
schoolgirl, Konstantinova quickly mastered guerilla tactics. Like many
of her generation, however, she was killed in 1944 while covering the
retreat of her platoon from a German ambush. Her diaries and letters are
augmented by a journalistic account of her life and by her father’s
account of her bravery in battle.

After meeting with some initial apprehension on the part of their male
partners, both women fitted into their fighting units and earned respect
through countless acts of bravery. Both these accounts effectively
refute the notion that women in the Russian Army served only as medics
during World War II. Unfortunately, they lack context. Cottam should
have provided more detailed introductions or footnotes to these
firsthand accounts. At times, it is difficult to follow the narrative. A
strange arrangement of overlapping stories and memoirs adds to the
difficulty in Defending Leningrad. In On the Road to Stalingrad, there
are some problems with Medvedeva’s recounting of events at which she
was not present. Nevertheless, both books fill a significant gap in the
historiography while providing insight into the patriotism and fervent
tenacity of Russian women in the military in defending Mother Russia.