The City Duma appointed a commission to investigate the matter. On
November 16th the commission returned from Levashovo, headquarters of
the Women’s Battalion. Madame Tyrkova reported that the girls had
been at first taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky Regiment, and
that there some of them had been badly treated; but that at present
most of them were at Levashovo, and the rest scattered about the city
in private houses. Dr. Mandelbaum, another of the commission,
testified drily that _none_ of the women had been thrown out of the
windows of the Winter Palace, that _none_ were wounded, that three
had been violated, and that one had committed suicide, leaving a note
which said that she had been “disappointed in her ideals.”
On November 21st the Military Revolutionary Committee officially
dissolved the Women’s Battalion, at the request of the girls
themselves, who returned to civilian clothes.
In Louise Bryant’s book, “Six Red Months in Russia,” there is an
interesting description of the girl-soldiers during this time.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER V
1.
APPEALS AND PROCLAMATIONS
_From the Military Revolutionary Committee,_ November 8:
“To All Army Committees and All Soviets of Soldiers’ Deputies.
“The Petrograd garrison has overturned the Government of Kerensky,
which had risen against the Revolution and the People….
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