This is a fascinating narrative told in first person by an amazing and courageous woman. Raised a peasant in tsarist Russia, Maria, who called herself "Yashka," had a childhood of poverty and abuse. The end of her second disastrous marriage coincided with the outbreak of World War I. She chose to defend "mother Russia" by joining the army, despite the fact that women were not allowed to serve. The recruiting officer told her that only the Tsar could give her permission to enlist -- so she got the Tsar to give her the permission she sought! She served heroically at the front until the outbreak of revolution. Her actions in opposition to the revolution read like fiction, but it's all true. She even met with Woodrow Wilson, and was partly responsible to the US Army's expedition to Siberia in the early 1920s. This compelling story gives insight into a period of history that is little understood, but which still impacts us today.