During the chaos that followed the First World War, a stranded Polisb battalion found itself fighting in the frozen north of Russia. It was there that they acquired Bäka, a young polar bear. What began as an impulsive act soon became something far more profound. Bäka lived among the soldiers of the Polish Murmansk Battalion, sharing their barracks, their routines, and their long, uncertain wait for a way home. She marched, shared a bed with her trainer, learned discipline, and became-by official order-Daughter of the Regiment. Carried from the Arctic to Poland, she becomes a symbol of endurance and survival-an animal whose life mirrors the fate of the soldiers around her-before becoming legend as the bear who stood on her hind legs like a human to shake hands with and then salute Marshal Pi¿sudski in a Warsaw military parade. Based on historical sources, Bäka: The Other Soldier Bear tells the remarkable true story of a polar bear who became part of a fighting unit-and of the soldiers who found, in her steady breathing, a reminder of home. This is not the story of Wojtek the Bear. This is the story of Bäka Murmäska. The bear who came before. Narrative nonfiction · Military history · Animal biography