Russian troops

Womens Battalion

The Legion of Death
A number of Russian women joined The Legion of Death, to fight for their country.
The First Battalion from St Petersburg distinguished themselves during a retreat by capturing over 100 German prisoners, sadly a lot of the battalion died during the battle.
Russia's women soldiers pledged to take their own lives rather than become German war prisoners. Each woman soldier carried a ration of cyanide of potassium to be swallowed in case of capture.
The members of the women regiments, agreed that death was to be preferred to the fate they would probably meet at the hands of the Germans.
https://hubpages.com/education/World-War-1-Women-At-War