Proud amazons in the war field 17

www.kamane.lt, 2014-07-15
Augusto Ferrer - Dalmau, ”Agustina de Aragon”, 2012
Aleksandr Briulov, “Nadiezda Durova”, lithograph, 1839

In brief: The opinion prevails in the society that war is only for men but women also used to participate in battles. This special phenomenon existed in the majority of continents and is reflected in legends of nations. Lithuania is no exception. What determines that young well-off women want to go to war? Perhaps they, similarly like men, are encouraged by love to homeland, patriotism, striving for glory? And perhaps they aim to become the same as men? Be as it is, the author tries to explain why it was so easy for some of the women to trade family happiness to the severe conditions of war.

Actions of women from the times of the British queen Boudica († 60 or 61 AD), who fought against Ancient Rome, to the personality of Jane of Arc (1412 – 1431) were interpreted diversely. Female soldiers could be traced in the campaign of Napoleon, in the Civil War of America, the War of Crimea and in other historical events. They did not always hide their names under male tunics.

The author reveals the stories of several women who decided to participate in war: the Spanish female fighter Agustina Raimunda Maria Saragossa i Domènech, who was called Agustina de Aragón (1786 – 1857); Laskarina Bouboulina (1777 – 1825), heroine of the Greek War of Independence in 1821; the first woman in the Russian army Nadiezda Durova (1783 – 1866), and the Lithuanian count’s daughter Emilija Pliaterytė (1806 – 1831), who participated in the uprising of 1831, as well as another participant of the uprising of 1831, who served in the Army of Lithuania and Poland, a noblewoman from Raseiniai Antanina Tamašauskaitė (1814 – 1883).


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