How a Russian princess became the world's first female military pilot

Twenty-one-year-old Evgenia Shakhovskaya's interest in aviation began in 1910, when she watched demonstration flights by French female aviator Raymonde de Laroche in St. Petersburg. The princess immediately enrolled in flying lessons and, two years later, she earned her pilot's license at the Wright Brothers' Flight School in Germany.

Even before completing her training, she attempted to take part in military conflicts in the Balkans and North Africa, hoping to "sow death… from a height of 500 meters and hear the bullets of enemy gunners whizzing past as they hunted our airplane!"

She was unable to get to the front at that time, so Shakhovskaya remained in Germany to train female aviators. In 1913, she survived a terrible plane crash and decided to leave the skies forever, but changed her mind after the outbreak of World War I.

The princess petitioned Nicholas II to send her to the front as a military pilot. On December 1, 1914, she was enlisted as an ensign in the 1st Army Aviation Detachment, where she carried out reconnaissance flights. However, her tenure was short-lived. In 1915, she was accused of spying for Germany, expelled from the detachment and taken into custody.

The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution freed Shakhovskaya from prison. For a time, she worked at the Gatchina Museum, but was fired for embezzlement. She was then recruited by the ‘Cheka’ (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission) the state security agency, where she first served as an informant and, later, as an investigator in Kiev. The princess conducted interrogations with extreme cruelty.

At that time, Shakhovskaya became addicted to alcohol and cocaine, while her morphine addiction had been going on since the plane crash. In 1920, the princess died. According to one account, she was shot by colleagues during a drunken argument.