Movies

SYNOPSIS

Spring, 1917. February Revolution changed the life of Russia and the course of the Great War. Tzar has already abdicated. In the trenches near Smorgonj, where confrontations with Germans lasted for almost a year, the Bolsheviks conducted their propaganda and called for peace with the enemy. Russian officers were not able to decide anything without the approval of the so-called military committee. The army was on the verge of complete destruction.

By order of the provisional government, in order to raise morale, a women's "death battalion" was formed under the command of Maria Bochkareva, who was decorated with the medal of St. George. In the ranks of "shock battalions" there were primarily women who served the army in front line (in the Russian Imperial Army there was a designated number of women occupying high positions, among them there were those decorated with St. George medal), and women from civic families, noblewomen, students, teachers, workers. Most of them were women and Cossacks. The Bochkarova’s Battalion was consisted of representatives of famous Russian noble families, but also of simple peasant women and maids. For example, Bochkareva’s adjutant was Maria Skridlova - daughter of Admiral N.I. Skridlov. By nationality volunteers were mostly Russian, but there were other nationalities as well - Estonians, Latvians, Jewish, English. In late June, the female "Battalion of Death" consisted of 200 soldiers arrived under Smorgonj (now Belarus), and a week later they joined the fight. Several times the battalion started a counterattack. The unit under the command of lieutenant Bochkareva held heroically in battle, all the time in the first rows, shoulder to shoulder with other soldiers. They were caring the ammunition, and some even did scouting or intelligence tasks. "Battalion of Death" was an example of courage, strength and calmness; they raised morale of soldiers and prove that each of these women deserved the name: Russian army fighter.

Dmitriy Meskhiev

Dmitriy Meskhiev was born on October 31, 1963 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR. He is a producer and director, known for Our Own (2004), Pribytie poezda (1995) and The Man at the Window (2010).

Filmography  

2014       Batalon / Battalion, The

2010       Chelovek u okna / Man at the Window

2003       Osobennosti natsionalnoy politiki / Peculiarities of the National Politics

2003       Dnevnki kamikadze / Diary of Kamikaze

2001       Mekhanicheskaya syuita / Mechanical Suite

2001       Amerikanka / American Bet

1999       Zhenskaya sobstvenost

1993       Nad temnoy vodoy

1991       Tsiniki

1990       Gambrinus