Mariia Z.: How I Became a Volunteer in Transvaal

Title

Kak ia byla dobrovol’tsem na Transvaale, Kiev 1901

How I Became a Volunteer in Transvaal

Keywords

Summary

This brief (and probably fictional) memoirs is centred around a Russian woman – the mysterious author – who, having left her husband Nikolai after learning of his infidelity, decides to rejoin him when news reaches her that he has volunteered in the Anglo-Boer War. Disguising herself as a man, she sails from France along with other volunteers and soon joins the battlefield, taking active part in the fights. She manages to find her husband just before he is shot, and they are both taken prisoner by the English. After various other adventures, they both escape and return to Europe.

Although it is highly unlikely that the events narrated actually happened, scholars have noticed that the author (male or female) either did indeed witness the Anglo-Boer War, or knew enough about it to include in their treatise very specific details.

Bio

Little (if anything) is known of Mariia Z., who allegedly went to South Africa for personal reasons. According to some scholars and an archival document, “Mariia Z.” could actually be a pseudonym for Ol’ga Nikolaevna Popova (1848-1907), writer, publisher and translator, editor of the journals “Russkoe bogatstvo” and “Novoe slovo” along with her husband. In a document stored at the Russian State Military-Historical Archive, it is reported that Popova “wishes to be officially seconded to a Red Cross unit to do what she can to help the Boers. She will go to Africa and return at her own expense. She agrees to donate up to 500 rubles to the Red Cross if her request is fulfilled”. However, no other information on her actual presence in South Africa or on her adoption of the alias “Mariia Z.” have been found.

Sources

A. Davidson, I. Filatova, The Russians and the Anglo-Boer War, Cape Town-Pretoria-Johannesburg 1998, p. 123-129;

RGVIA, f. 12651, d. 1392, l. 78, quoted in Anglo-burskaia voina 1899-1902 gg. Po arkhivnym materialam i vospominaniiam ochevidtsev, ed. by N. Voropaeva et al., Moskva 2001, p. 513.

A.F.