Open Fire by Amber Lough

Seventeen-year-old Ekaterina Viktorovna (Katya) Pavlova lives in Petrograd, Russia where she works in a factory making the M1914 stick grenade, filling each one with 320 grams of TNT. Katya's father, Colonel Pavlova is at the front fighting the Germans while her brother Maxim Victorovich is at home recovering from his wounds. Katya had been attending university studying to be a chemist, but  had dropped out to help with the war effort.

On February 23, 1941, Masha Gubina, Katya's best friend convinces her to attend the women's march on Nevsky Prospeckt, Petrograd's main street. Katya is not keen to attend but she agrees. At the march, Katya encounters Sergei Fyodorovich Grigorev, a friend from university. Sergei is a Bolshevik. Katya, whose father is a colonel in the Imperial Army, has been taught to be loyal to the Tsar. Despit this, at Sergie's urging, Katya attends the march.

Socialists along with grandmothers, mothers and school girls begin chanting "Free the people. Free the workers! Free the bread!" Then suddenly the Cossacks, cavalry in the Imperial Army appear. The Cossack leader tells them to end the march and go home. When the marchers do not disperse, and someone throws a rock at the Cossack commander, the soldiers aim their rifles and open fire. Katya is horrified that Russians would fire on their own people.

Katya reveals to Sergei that she knows about the Tsar through her father's connections. This leads him to attempt to enlist Katya to pass on information about the Tsar to the Bolsheviks who want the Tsar to abdicate so they can form a socialist government to run the country. However, Katya, still loyal to the Tsar, refuses.

At home Katya discovers that Maxim has gambled away the money she saved to pay off his debts. Maxim had been at the front for two years when he was injured during a battle in October. Now home recovering, he has nightmares and can't sleep and spends his time gambling. He is unable to work because once employed he will be sent back to the front. As a last attempt, he decides to write their father to ask for a discharge. Maxim's debts leave Katya no choice but to supply Sergei and the Bolsheviks with information about the Tsar.

To this end, Katya attends a dinner at General Yudenich and Elena Stefanova's home. General Yudenich's son, Ilya was killed in action November 9, 1915. Katya secretly loved Ilya. They had spent their childhood together; he taught Katya about military rules, how to march, and how to hold a gun and saber. At the dinner Katya learns about Sergeant Bochkareva who wants to form a women's battalion to shame the Russian men who are fleeing the front. She has obtained permission from General Kerensky, the Minister of War to do so.

The Women's March ends up bringing down the government, forcing Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate and the forming of a moderate provisional government. In the factory, Katya begins making gas grenades filled with chloropicrin. Masha's father has now left to fight at the front as does Maxim, whose father refused to get him the discharge.

In May, Katya and Masha attend a rally for the Women's Battalion of Death at the Mariinsky Theatre. At first Katya refuses to go, but when a telegram from her father arrives announcing that Maxim has deserted, she relents. There is now no reason for her to remain at home, since Maxim will never return. At the women's rally, Katya is inspired by Bochkareva's rousing speech and signs up. When she tells Sergei, he is furious that she has joined, telling her that it only means more people will die. Katya is determined to remain loyal to the Tsar and save her beloved country. But as Katya first trains to become a soldier and then is sent to the front, the realities of war and life under the Tsar come to bear.

Discussion

Open Fire is a historical novel, set in 1917 Russia, that offers a portrayal of a very interesting and little known aspect of World War II, the Women's Battalion of Death. In this respect, Open Fire is similar to several other recent historical novels about Russia and the world wars. In the novels, Night Witches and Among The Red Stars, the Soviet Union's female bomber regiment infamously nicknamed "the night witches", is portrayed. In Open Fire, readers learn about the formation of an all women's battalion whose goal was to humiliate Russian men into joining the war effort. 

Maria Bochareva

The Women's Battalion was the brain child of Maria Bochareva, a peasant woman who had distinguished herself as a soldier in earlier years of the Great War. Bochareva was born in 1889 and had a difficult life prior to serving in the Great War. Her home life growing up was abusive and impoverished, and she was abused by both her first and second husband. She fled her second marriage to join the army in 1914, obtaining special permission from Tsar Nicholas Alexander. 

In 1917, Russian soldiers were deserting in large numbers due to poor morale. In a meeting with General Kerensky in May of 1917, Bochareva received permission to create a special women's unit. Her speech on May 21 resulted in two thousand women volunteering, of which only five hundred were chosen. They were rigorously trained and followed a strict code. The women carried a small capsule of  potassium cyanide to take if they were captured by German soldiers.

The Women's Battalion of Death fought valiantly but in the end they were betrayed by Russian soldiers who refused to help the battalion at the front. There was a great deal of opposition to the women soldiers. As author Amber Lough notes in her Author's Note at the back, the women's battalions were officially disbanded once the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin came to power in Russia.

Lough does a good job of capturing life during the final days of Tsar Nicholas as Russia hurtled towards revolution. The novel covers a very short period of time, from February 23 to July 31, 1917. This period was the beginning of the end of Imperial Russia. During this time, Russia was involved in World War I, having been drawn into the war after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, an ally of Russia. Russia had previously lost the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05 and was ill-equipped and poorly trained. In addition the country was struggling with political and social unrest. Much of the population consisted of poor peasant farmers who had little representation in Russia's autocratic government. Cities were crowded and filthy. Factory strikes were common.

As World War I dragged on Russia began suffering tremendous causalities. By 1916, almost five million men had been killed, were missing, or prisoners of war. Russian soldiers lacked weapons, munitions and even proper clothing and boots. In some situations soldiers were sent into battle without weapons, told to scavenge weapons from dead soldiers. It was no surprise that morale was low and that  soldiers began to desert. It was in these circumstances that the Womens Battalion was formed.

In Open Fire, the story of Katya and the Women's Battalion touches on some of this through the experiences of the main character, Katya. Katya's father, a Colonel in the Imperial Army and their family are loyal to Tsar Nicholas II. With her mother having left the family years earlier and her father at the front fighting, Katya is determined to help with the war effort. To that end, Katya works in a munitions factory, having giving up studying chemistry at university. The work is dirty, tiring and pays poorly. A member of the upper class, Katya is working with women who are mostly peasants.

Her family's special status is first hinted at during the march when Katya thinks about how her family has "access to food stores not publicly available." Unlike other workers at the factory, Katya attends army wives' functions, such as Easter tea. She dresses up in beautiful gowns and pretends that life in Petrograd is going on as normal. Conditions in Petrograd and the civil unrest are only briefly hinted at. Readers are told, "The Tsar had put out a ration on bread, and since the city was already strained by three years of war and a bitter winter, the women were taking to the streets. I didn't blame the, given that the last loaf I'd bought had been gray, not white, and I'd had to wait in line for nearly an hour to get it." 

In contrast to Katya is her friend Sergei, also a former student and a Bolshevik, who believes revolution will bring about a "golden future" for Russia. "Once the Tsar abdicated and a socialist government took power, Russia's troubles would end. We'd all have what we needed, he said with conviction, and no one would be sponging their wealth off the backs of the poor. There would be equality and justice, for man and woman alike." But Katya believes "a revolution would be tart, biting back." 

Nevertheless, before she enlists, Katya finds herself conflicted over the war and her loyalty to the Tsar. She reluctantly agrees to supply Sergei with information about the Tsar and later on refuses to sabotage the Women's Battalion as he requests.

Katya enters the war determined to fight for Mother Russia. She wants Russia to win the war.But her war experiences, such as the death of her best friend Masha or bayoneting a man to death change Katya's perspective forever. After recovering from her wounds, Katya's view on the war, Russia and the revolution have changed. War does not solve problems. It doesn't solve the world's problems or a country like Russia's problems. She now understands why her brother Maxim deserted. "I wanted to find Maxim and tell him that I finally understood. He needed to find peace. There are worthy wars fought badly and unworthy ones fought well, and all of them are hell. They may save nations or break them, but they always take more than they give back." 

Unlike Sergei who remains a committed Bolshevik, Katya tells him, as they are setting up a chess game, that she will choose "Whichever side plays with the most honor." The novel ends with her determined to face the future with courage and hope.

The main strength of this novel is its portrayal of war. Lough, a U.S. Air Force veteran, was able to capture some of the terror and horror of World War I with her descriptive battle scenes. The novel's perspective is unique because it portrays women soldiers engaged in bloody battles at the Eastern Front. It portrays the gruesome ways soldiers die, the suffering and the debilitating effects of battle including the special risks the Women's Battalion encountered not just from enemy soldiers but their own men.

An interesting feature Lough has added into her story is a second story within a story; Katya recounts her father's telling of the legend of St. Olga of Kiev and her dealings with the Drevalians who murdered her husband, Igor. Before her conversion to Christianity, Olga is considered a true warrior queen who exacted a terrible revenge on the Drevalians for her husband's murder. As such St. Olga exemplifies the strong, dauntless Russian warrior: a fitting example for the daughter of a Russian officer and a soldier in the Women's Battalion.

Readers can learn more about the 1st Russian Women's Battalion in Lough's Author's Note at the back of the book. Maria Bochareva whose larger than life persona Lough attempted with some success to capture, is a historical figure few readers will know about. Bochareva was executed by the Red Army in 1920. She had worked to prevent the communist takeover of Russia and was seen as an "enemy of the people." Lough offers young readers Topics For Discussion section along with some recommendations to learn more about the events covered in her novel.

Maria Bochareva image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Bochkareva#/media/File:Bochkareva_Maria_LOC_ggbain_26866.jpg

Book Details:

Open Fire by Amber Lough
Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Lab        2020
255 pp.