This story took place on January 24, 1878, during the Russo-Turkish War. Russian troops were advancing rapidly towards Adrianople (Edirne). Chaos reigned everywhere: columns of refugees, overturned carts, and the bodies of local residents robbed and killed by bands from the Turkish army — the Bashibazouks. Suddenly, a soldier of the Keksgolm Grenadier Regiment, Mikhail Saenko, saw a small Turkish girl, about five years old, near the body of a murdered woman. The soldier immediately ran out of formation and took the child. The regiment decided to adopt the girl and care for her until adulthood. Although the girl’s name was Ayşe, she was baptized and named Maria Keksgolmskaya in honor of Empress Maria Alexandrovna and the regiment that saved her. The soldiers and officers created a special fund for the "daughter of the regiment," Maria, and regularly contributed to it. They even petitioned the imperial couple to have the girl enrolled in the Institute for Noble Maidens. The diligent and disciplined girl graduated from this institute in 1890, and two years later married dragoon Alexander Shlemmer. The official request for Maria's hand was made to the regiment's officers' assembly. The Keksgolm Regiment gave their "daughter" a substantial dowry of 12,500 silver rubles. The girl’s rescuer, Mikhail Saenko, could not attend the wedding but sent a congratulatory telegram. During World War I, Maria served as a nurse, and soldiers, for her kindness and care, called her "the saint of saints." She died in 1920 in Crimea from tuberculosis.