Cossack Girl

Marina Yurlova (1900-1984) served in uniform as a fighting Cossack, volunteering in 1914 at the age of 14. Though repeatedly wounded in combat, she returned to military service and repeatedly won the St. George's Cross for bravery. Through the war and revolution, Marina encountered Turks, Kurds and Reds, drove cars and trucks, fought for the Czech Legion, trekked overland across Siberia, and finally boarded a ship at Vladivostok to travel to Japan in 1919. She tells her story of these years at war in this, the first volume of her three-part autobiography.