Very few of the historical women who disguised themselves as men to become soldiers have told their adventures in their own words. Nadezhda Durova was a minor noblewoman who spent seven years in the Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic wars and earned the distinguished cross of St. George. Years later a chance meeting introduced her to Pushkin, who read her service journals and encouraged her to publish with the praise, "Charming! Vivid, original, beautiful style."A key moment in Durova's life happens during infancy. Her father, an army officer, brings his family to camp. Shocked to see his wife abusing the baby girl, he keeps Nadezhda with the regiment and orders his soldiers to raise her. Soon her favorite toy is an unloaded gun.
After her father's retirement, when Napoleon's ambitions turn to Eastern Europe, Durova needs little excuse to run away on her horse and join the army. She reaches the front just in time for the disastrous Prussian campaign. Her worried family asks friends to seek her whereabouts. Soon rumors of an amazon reach the tsar.
Durova has little praise for her own performance at the front. In a fit of exhaustion she even sleeps through a town's evacuation. Her superiors give better reports that result in a decoration from the tsar for saving the life of an officer during battle. During a direct interview Alexander I allows her to remain in the army using his name as a pseudonym. He then places her in an elite unit.
Life in the hussars is less than ideal. Unable to grow the Russian officer's expected mustache, Durova gets passed over for promotion by superiors who think she is a boy. Not everyone considers this a disadvantage-particularly the colonel's infatuated daughter. Durova's talent for amusing anecdotes shines as she describes how she extracts herself from this predicament.
Durova sees action again during the 1812 campaign. Wounded in the battle of Borodino outside Moscow, she has the good fortune to go home before Napoleon's death march retreat.
This narrative has both the freshness and the failings of journal writing. Pushkin appears to have lent some editorial assistance. Individual episodes shine but frequent interruptions disturb the flow. Readers are advised to consider that Durova is a creature of her era, occasionally exhibiting prejudices not accepted in the present age.
Although famous in her native Russia, Durova is little known to the English speaking world. Mary Fleming Zirin's translation brings an original story to a new audience. This volume reproduces the entire memoir with additional documentary evidence of Durova's military career and a well-researched introduction.
