Elisabeth Lukinichna Dmitrieff
Елизавета Лукинична Кушелева
Russian revolutionary who organized the Paris Commune's Women's Union
She organized cooperative workshops to give women control over their labor.
Born Elizaveta Kusheleva, she later used the married name Tomanovskaya. She took part in the Geneva section of the First International and met Marx in London in 1870. Sent to Paris in 1871 as the International's representative, she founded the Women's Union and organized cooperative workshops for women workers. Wounded while fighting on the barricades during the suppression of the Commune, she escaped to Geneva, returned to Russia, and later followed her second husband, Ivan Davydovski, into Siberian exile. Her date of death is unknown; it has been placed probably between 1916 and 1918.
Career timeline
- 1867Married Mikhail Tomanovski to gain access to her inheritance and funded revolutionary organizations.
- 1868–1869Financed and co-edited the Russian-language journal Narodnoye delo and helped found the First International's Russian section in Geneva.
- 1870Went to London as an envoy of the Geneva section and met Karl Marx.
- 1871Founded the Women's Union during the Paris Commune and promoted cooperative workshops and labor rights for women.
- 1871–1877Returned to Russia after the Commune's defeat, then married Ivan Davydovski and followed him into Siberian exile.