Alena Arzamasskaia
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Alena Arzamasskaia | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | The Russian Joan of Arc |
| Born | |
| Died | 1670 |
| Conflicts | Peasants' Revolt |
Alena Arzamasskaia (or Alyona; Erzyan: Эрзямассонь Олёна, Russian: Алёна Арзамасская; died 1670), sometimes called the Russian Joan of Arc, was a famed female rebel fighter in 17th-century Russia, posing as a man and fighting in Cossack Stepan Razin's (Peasants' Revolt) revolt of 1670 in southern Russia. Unlike Joan of Arc, who was fighting in the name of her king, Alyona was rebelling against her czar. She was an Erzyan female ataman under the leadership of Stepan Razin. A peasant by birth from the Vyezdnaya sloboda of Arzamas, she was an elderly nun ("старица") before becoming an ataman. She commanded a detachment of about 600 men and participated in the capture of Temnikov in 1670, before being burned at the stake.
Alyona was a peasant by birth from the Vyezdnaya sloboda of Arzamas (Volga region) and married a peasant while still a young girl. Her son died and as a child widow, she then became a nun at Nikolaevskii Monastery. While there, she read and studied medicine. She was unhappy at the convent due to the strict regulated life she had to lead. In 1669, she left the convent, cutting her hair and dressing as a man.[1]