The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars

Nadezhda Durova (1783–1866) was a woman who, disguised as a man, became a decorated soldier in the Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) under the name of Alexander Durov or Sokolov. She was the first known female officer in the Russian military. She served ten years in the Russian military. Her memoir, Notes of a Cavalry Maiden (Записки кавалерист-девицы), is a significant document of its era because few crossed dressed women soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars published their experiences, and because it is one of the earliest autobiographies in the Russian language. The book is a lively narrative, mixing facts and fiction, which appeals in our own time as a unique and gripping contribution to the literature of female experience on the battlefield. Excerpts of the book originally appeared in 1836 in the literary journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary).