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[[Image:Nadezhda Durova.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Nadeshda Durova in officer's uniform]]
'''Nadezhda Andreyevna Durova''' ({{lang-ru|Надежда Андреевна Дурова}}) also known as '''Alexander Durov''', '''Alexander Sokolov''' and '''Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov''' ([[1783]], [[Kiev]] - [[March 21]], [[1866]], [[Yelabuga]] ) was a woman who became a decorated soldier in the [[Russia]]n cavalry during the [[Napoleonic wars]]. She was the first known female officer in the Russian military. Her memoir is a significant document of its era because few junior officers of the Napoleonic wars published their experiences and ''The Cavalry Maiden'' is one of the earliest autobiographies in the [[Russian language]].
==Early life==
Nadezhda Durova was born in an army camp, the daughter of a [[Russia]]n [[major]]. Her father placed her in the care of his soldiers after an incident that nearly killed her in infancy when her abusive mother threw her out the window of a moving carriage. As a small child, Durova learned all the standard marching commands and her favorite toy was an unloaded gun.
After her father retired from service, she continued playing with broken sabers and frightened her family by secretly taming a stallion that they considered unbreakable. In [[1801]], she married a [[Sarapul]] judge V.S. Chernov and gave birth to a son in 1803. Some accounts claim that she ran away from her home with a [[Cossack]] officer in 1805. In 1807, at the age of twenty-four she disguised herself as a boy, deserted her son and husband, and bringing her horse Alkid, enlisted in a [[Poland|Polish]] [[uhlan]] [[regiment]] under the alias ''Alexander Sokolov''.
[[Image:Nadezhda Durova fem.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Nadezhda Durova at about age thirteen]]
Durova was fiercely patriotic and considered army life to be freedom. She enjoyed animals and the outdoors. She felt she had little talent for traditional women's work. In her memoirs, she described an unhappy relationship with her mother, warmth toward her father, and nothing at all about her own married life.
==Military service==
[[Image:Ndurova.jpg|thumb|left|180px|A public statue in commemoration of Nadezhda Durova.]]
She fought in the major Russian engagements of the 1806-1807 [[Prussia]]n campaign. During two of those battles, she saved the lives of two fellow Russian soldiers. The first was an enlisted man who fell off his horse on the battlefield and suffered a concussion. She gave him first aid under heavy fire and brought him to safety as the army retreated around them. The second was an officer, unhorsed but uninjured. Three French [[dragoon]]s were closing on him. She couched her [[lance]] and scattered the enemy. Then, against regulations, she let the officer borrow her own horse to hasten his retreat, which left her more vulnerable to attack. [http://historynet.com/mh/blnadezhdadurova/index1.html]
During the campaign, she wrote a letter to her family explaining her disappearance. They used their connections in a desperate attempt to locate her. The rumor of an [[Amazons|amazon]] in the army reached [[Tsar Alexander I]], who took a personal interest. Durova's chain of command reported that her courage was peerless. Summoned to the palace at [[St. Petersburg]], she impressed the [[Tsar]] so much that he awarded her the [[Cross of St. George]] and promoted her to [[lieutenant]] in an elite [[hussar]] unit (''Mariupol Hussar Regiment''). The story that there was the heroine in the army with the name Alexander Sokolov had become well known by that time. So the Tsar awarded her a new [[pseudonym]] ''Alexandrov'' based on his own name. [http://www.rulex.ru/01050167.htm]
Durova's youthful appearance hurt her chances for promotion. In an era when Russian officers were expected to grow a mustache she looked like a boy of sixteen. She transferred away from the hussars to the ''Lithuania Ulan Regiment'' in order to avoid the colonel's daughter who had fallen in love with her. Durova saw action again during [[Napoleon's invasion of Russia]] in [[1812]]. She fought in the [[Battle of Smolensk (1812)|Battle of Smolensk]]. During the [[Battle of Borodino]] a [[cannonball]] wounded her in the leg, yet she continued serving full duty for several days afterward until her command ordered her away to recuperate. She retired from the army in [[1816]] with the rank of [[Rittmeister|stabs-rotmistr]], the equivalent of captain. [http://www.rulex.ru/01050167.htm]
A chance meeting introduced her to [[Aleksandr Pushkin]] some twenty years later. When he learned that she had kept a journal during her army service he encouraged her to publish it as a memoir. She added background about her early childhood but changed her age by seven years and eliminated all reference to her marriage. Durova published this as ''The Cavalry Maiden'' in [[1836]]. Durova also wrote four novels and advocated for women's rights. Durova continued to wear male clothing for the rest of her life. She was buried with full military honors. [http://www.rulex.ru/01050167.htm]
==Later years and legacy==
[[Image:Hussarballad.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Eldar Ryazanov]]'s musical comedy ''[[Hussar Ballad]]'' romanticized Durova's adventures in the army.]]
Durova's descendants seem to have inherited her talent for consorting with animals. Nadezhda's great-grandsons Vladimir and Anatoly Durov were the famous Russian [[circus]] [[animal training|animal trainers]] and founders of the ''Durov Animal Theater'' in [[Moscow]]. Currently the Theater is run by another descendant of Nadezhda, Natalia Durova.
Durova's [[gender identity]] has been a source of recent interest. Her adoption of a masculine persona extended far enough that her son had to address her as "Dear Parent" when he asked her consent to get married. Some readers interpret her as a [[heterosexual]] woman who adopted [[celibacy]] and male clothing to achieve professional freedom. Others see sexual overtones to her cross dressing. The text of her memoir conforms to the mores of the era and asserts chastity.
Besides being a rare example of a female soldier's military memoir, ''The Cavalry Maiden'' is one of the few sustained accounts of the Napoleonic wars to describe events from the perspective of a junior officer and one of the earliest autobiographical works in [[Russian literature]].
Durova became a figure of some cultural interest in [[Eastern Europe]] but remained largely unknown to the English speaking world until Mary Fleming Zirin's translation of ''The Cavalry Maiden'' in [[1988]]. Durova is now a subject of university syllabi and scholarly publications in comparative literature, [[Russian history]], and [[transgender]] studies.
==Artistic works about Nadezhda Durova==
*''Nadezhda Durova'', an opera by [[Anatoly Bogatyrev]].
*''A Long Time Ago'', a play by [[Alexander Gladkov]].
*''Hussar Ballad'', an operetta by [[Tikhon Khrennikov]]
*''Hussar Ballad'', a film directed by [[Eldar Ryazanov]].
*[http://www.elabuga.ru/foto/022.jpg Monument to Nadezhda Durova] in [[Yelabuga]], sculptor F.F. Lyakh, architect S.P. Buritsky, 1993
==See also==
*[[War and Peace in Russia, 1796-1825]]
*[[Battle of Eylau]]
*[[Battle of Friedland]]
*[[Battle of Jena-Auerstedt]]
*[[Timeline of women's participation in warfare]]
*[[Crossdressing During Wartime]]
==External links==
* A [http://historynet.com/mh/blnadezhdadurova/index.html History Net] summary of Durova's life.
* A [http://www.vor.ru/culture/cultarch38_eng.html Russian culture navigator] account of Durova.
* A [http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/525/ brief excerpt] from Durova's experiences during the retreat to Moscow in 1812.
* The [http://www.moscow-taxi.com/4children/durov-animal-theater.html Durov Animal Theater] in Moscow, a surviving legacy of the Durov clan.
* [http://www.museum.ru/museum/1812/Library/durova/durova01.html Durova's memoir] {{ru icon}}
* [http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/007/038/38102.htm Nadezhda Durova] in the [[Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary]] - {{ru icon}}
* [http://www.rulex.ru/01050167.htm Biography of Durova] - {{ru icon}}
==Bibliography==
*Durova, Nadezhda, ''The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars'' trans. Mary Fleming Zirin. Indiana University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-253-20549-2 (see book reviews on [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253205492]).
*Barta, Peter I., "Gender Trial and Gothic Trill: Nadezhda Durova's Subversive Self-Exploration" by Amdreas Schonle in ''Gender and Sexuality in Russian Civilization'', 2001. ISBN 0-415-27130-4
'''Nadezhda Andreyevna Durova''' ({{lang-ru|Надежда Андреевна Дурова}}) also known as '''Alexander Durov''', '''Alexander Sokolov''' and '''Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov''' ([[1783]], [[Kiev]] - [[March 21]], [[1866]], [[Yelabuga]] ) was a woman who became a decorated soldier in the [[Russia]]n cavalry during the [[Napoleonic wars]]. She was the first known female officer in the Russian military. Her memoir is a significant document of its era because few junior officers of the Napoleonic wars published their experiences and ''The Cavalry Maiden'' is one of the earliest autobiographies in the [[Russian language]].
==Early life==
Nadezhda Durova was born in an army camp, the daughter of a [[Russia]]n [[major]]. Her father placed her in the care of his soldiers after an incident that nearly killed her in infancy when her abusive mother threw her out the window of a moving carriage. As a small child, Durova learned all the standard marching commands and her favorite toy was an unloaded gun.
After her father retired from service, she continued playing with broken sabers and frightened her family by secretly taming a stallion that they considered unbreakable. In [[1801]], she married a [[Sarapul]] judge V.S. Chernov and gave birth to a son in 1803. Some accounts claim that she ran away from her home with a [[Cossack]] officer in 1805. In 1807, at the age of twenty-four she disguised herself as a boy, deserted her son and husband, and bringing her horse Alkid, enlisted in a [[Poland|Polish]] [[uhlan]] [[regiment]] under the alias ''Alexander Sokolov''.
[[Image:Nadezhda Durova fem.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Nadezhda Durova at about age thirteen]]
Durova was fiercely patriotic and considered army life to be freedom. She enjoyed animals and the outdoors. She felt she had little talent for traditional women's work. In her memoirs, she described an unhappy relationship with her mother, warmth toward her father, and nothing at all about her own married life.
==Military service==
[[Image:Ndurova.jpg|thumb|left|180px|A public statue in commemoration of Nadezhda Durova.]]
She fought in the major Russian engagements of the 1806-1807 [[Prussia]]n campaign. During two of those battles, she saved the lives of two fellow Russian soldiers. The first was an enlisted man who fell off his horse on the battlefield and suffered a concussion. She gave him first aid under heavy fire and brought him to safety as the army retreated around them. The second was an officer, unhorsed but uninjured. Three French [[dragoon]]s were closing on him. She couched her [[lance]] and scattered the enemy. Then, against regulations, she let the officer borrow her own horse to hasten his retreat, which left her more vulnerable to attack. [http://historynet.com/mh/blnadezhdadurova/index1.html]
During the campaign, she wrote a letter to her family explaining her disappearance. They used their connections in a desperate attempt to locate her. The rumor of an [[Amazons|amazon]] in the army reached [[Tsar Alexander I]], who took a personal interest. Durova's chain of command reported that her courage was peerless. Summoned to the palace at [[St. Petersburg]], she impressed the [[Tsar]] so much that he awarded her the [[Cross of St. George]] and promoted her to [[lieutenant]] in an elite [[hussar]] unit (''Mariupol Hussar Regiment''). The story that there was the heroine in the army with the name Alexander Sokolov had become well known by that time. So the Tsar awarded her a new [[pseudonym]] ''Alexandrov'' based on his own name. [http://www.rulex.ru/01050167.htm]
Durova's youthful appearance hurt her chances for promotion. In an era when Russian officers were expected to grow a mustache she looked like a boy of sixteen. She transferred away from the hussars to the ''Lithuania Ulan Regiment'' in order to avoid the colonel's daughter who had fallen in love with her. Durova saw action again during [[Napoleon's invasion of Russia]] in [[1812]]. She fought in the [[Battle of Smolensk (1812)|Battle of Smolensk]]. During the [[Battle of Borodino]] a [[cannonball]] wounded her in the leg, yet she continued serving full duty for several days afterward until her command ordered her away to recuperate. She retired from the army in [[1816]] with the rank of [[Rittmeister|stabs-rotmistr]], the equivalent of captain. [http://www.rulex.ru/01050167.htm]
A chance meeting introduced her to [[Aleksandr Pushkin]] some twenty years later. When he learned that she had kept a journal during her army service he encouraged her to publish it as a memoir. She added background about her early childhood but changed her age by seven years and eliminated all reference to her marriage. Durova published this as ''The Cavalry Maiden'' in [[1836]]. Durova also wrote four novels and advocated for women's rights. Durova continued to wear male clothing for the rest of her life. She was buried with full military honors. [http://www.rulex.ru/01050167.htm]
==Later years and legacy==
[[Image:Hussarballad.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Eldar Ryazanov]]'s musical comedy ''[[Hussar Ballad]]'' romanticized Durova's adventures in the army.]]
Durova's descendants seem to have inherited her talent for consorting with animals. Nadezhda's great-grandsons Vladimir and Anatoly Durov were the famous Russian [[circus]] [[animal training|animal trainers]] and founders of the ''Durov Animal Theater'' in [[Moscow]]. Currently the Theater is run by another descendant of Nadezhda, Natalia Durova.
Durova's [[gender identity]] has been a source of recent interest. Her adoption of a masculine persona extended far enough that her son had to address her as "Dear Parent" when he asked her consent to get married. Some readers interpret her as a [[heterosexual]] woman who adopted [[celibacy]] and male clothing to achieve professional freedom. Others see sexual overtones to her cross dressing. The text of her memoir conforms to the mores of the era and asserts chastity.
Besides being a rare example of a female soldier's military memoir, ''The Cavalry Maiden'' is one of the few sustained accounts of the Napoleonic wars to describe events from the perspective of a junior officer and one of the earliest autobiographical works in [[Russian literature]].
Durova became a figure of some cultural interest in [[Eastern Europe]] but remained largely unknown to the English speaking world until Mary Fleming Zirin's translation of ''The Cavalry Maiden'' in [[1988]]. Durova is now a subject of university syllabi and scholarly publications in comparative literature, [[Russian history]], and [[transgender]] studies.
==Artistic works about Nadezhda Durova==
*''Nadezhda Durova'', an opera by [[Anatoly Bogatyrev]].
*''A Long Time Ago'', a play by [[Alexander Gladkov]].
*''Hussar Ballad'', an operetta by [[Tikhon Khrennikov]]
*''Hussar Ballad'', a film directed by [[Eldar Ryazanov]].
*[http://www.elabuga.ru/foto/022.jpg Monument to Nadezhda Durova] in [[Yelabuga]], sculptor F.F. Lyakh, architect S.P. Buritsky, 1993
==See also==
*[[War and Peace in Russia, 1796-1825]]
*[[Battle of Eylau]]
*[[Battle of Friedland]]
*[[Battle of Jena-Auerstedt]]
*[[Timeline of women's participation in warfare]]
*[[Crossdressing During Wartime]]
==External links==
* A [http://historynet.com/mh/blnadezhdadurova/index.html History Net] summary of Durova's life.
* A [http://www.vor.ru/culture/cultarch38_eng.html Russian culture navigator] account of Durova.
* A [http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/525/ brief excerpt] from Durova's experiences during the retreat to Moscow in 1812.
* The [http://www.moscow-taxi.com/4children/durov-animal-theater.html Durov Animal Theater] in Moscow, a surviving legacy of the Durov clan.
* [http://www.museum.ru/museum/1812/Library/durova/durova01.html Durova's memoir] {{ru icon}}
* [http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/007/038/38102.htm Nadezhda Durova] in the [[Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary]] - {{ru icon}}
* [http://www.rulex.ru/01050167.htm Biography of Durova] - {{ru icon}}
==Bibliography==
*Durova, Nadezhda, ''The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars'' trans. Mary Fleming Zirin. Indiana University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-253-20549-2 (see book reviews on [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253205492]).
*Barta, Peter I., "Gender Trial and Gothic Trill: Nadezhda Durova's Subversive Self-Exploration" by Amdreas Schonle in ''Gender and Sexuality in Russian Civilization'', 2001. ISBN 0-415-27130-4