Alexandra Kudasheva

Madame Colonel Alexandra Kudasheva (1873–1921?) was a Russian sportswoman and female soldier, notable both for her endurance riding feats, and for commanding of one of the first fully integrated combat units during World War I.

Alexandra Kudasheva was born around 1875, the daughter of a soldier in the Orenburg Cossack Host. One source say that she was born during the campaign against Khiva in 1873, orphaned at a young age, and grew up among soldiers; another mentions qualifications in both medicine and veterinary medicine, travels in India, and knowledge of several Asian languages, including fluent Kazakh. Sources do not record her maiden name, and it is even unclear whether her father's name was or Georgiy.

She married a cavalry officer, a member of the princely family of Kudachev (a lineage of Tatar origin descended from Genghis Khan) who eventually held the rank equivalent to lieutenant-colonel (voiskovoi starshina) in the 6th Ural Cossack Regiment. When her husband died in the early years of the twentieth century, the widowed Mme. Kudasheva decided to ride solo across Eurasia to present herself to the Tsar and demonstrate the physical capabilities of the female Cossack - although she had to delay her expedition until her children had grown up and left home.

She eventually departed from Harbin in May 1910. Her only equipment consisted of her traditional Cossack uniform and weapons, and what she could carry in her saddlebags; her only companions were her Mongolian horse Mongolka (Монголка, "Mongol") and her St. Bernard, Farab (Фараб, apparently named for he abandoned city of Otrar). The dog proved unable to keep up the pace, and was left behind in Chita. Having been fêted by several Cossack regiments along the route, and attracting increasing media attention, she passed through Moscow in June 1911 and arrived in St Petersburg in August 1911. The length of her journey was said to have been 12,000 versts, or around 8,000 miles.

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