Sofia Nikolaevna de Bode graduated from the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens in 1914. In 1917, she joined a women's shock battalion and continued her education at officer courses in the Alexandrov School, after which she received the rank of ensign.

With the start of World War I in 1914, Sofia ran away from home to the front to join her father and was assigned to a reconnaissance team, where she served for eight months. Due to a broken leg sustained during one of the vaulting exercises, she was sent to Moscow. From the first days of the October Revolution, she participated in armed struggle against the Bolsheviks in Moscow and on the Don. Sofia commanded a unit of cadets during the October battles in Moscow and was wounded in the leg at Nikitsky Gates, but did not leave the battlefield. After the defeat of the cadets, she hid with acquaintances and then joined Kornilov's army.

Sofia Nikolaevna participated in the First Kuban (Ice) Campaign of the Volunteer Army and served as an orderly in the cavalry. While in the village of Kagarlyk, L. G. Kornilov ordered a trial for an ensign who had stolen a rooster. The culprit turned out to be Sofia de Bode. The officer's honor court, considering her age (19 years), gender, and admission of guilt, limited her punishment to a few days of arrest, although the commander demanded a harsher penalty.

Sofia was remembered for her incredible bravery, talent as a cavalryman, and cruelty towards the Bolsheviks. A contemporary of Sofia, Amphitheatrov-Kadachev V., wrote that she ruthlessly shot captured Bolsheviks, avenging her murdered parents and sister. She herself, beaten to near death, was saved by a maid.

Sofia died on March 31, 1918, during the first assault on Yekaterinodar in the suburb of Sady. In a cavalry charge by General Erdeli, her horse was killed, but she continued to run after the attackers and was struck by a bullet. Baroness Sofia de Bode was 20 years old.

In August 1918, after the capture of Yekaterinodar by the Volunteer Army, her remains were buried in the city. The location of her burial remains unknown.