'Grandmother of the Russian Revolution' who endured 44 years of prison and exile; co-founder of the Socialist Revolutionary Party
"Mr. Kennan, we may die in exile, and our children may die in exile, and our children's children may die in exile, but something will come of it at last" — to George Kennan in Siberia, 1885.
Born into the nobility, she helped free her family's serfs in 1861, then joined the 1874 'Going to the People' movement. At the 1878 Trial of the 193 she became the first woman sentenced to katorga for a political crime, enduring 22 years in prison and Siberian exile that brought international fame through George Kennan's writings. Released in 1896, she co-founded the Socialist Revolutionary Party with Grigory Gershuni and led creation of its Combat Organization, then raised funds on a 1904 U.S. tour where she was dubbed 'Babushka.' After the February Revolution she returned as the symbolic elder of the Provisional Government and chaired the Pre-Parliament, but opposed the Bolshevik takeover and backed the White cause. Exiled in 1918, she died in Czechoslovakia.
Career timeline
1861Helped free serfs on family estate; opened school, library, and cooperative bank for peasants
1873–1874Formed radical commune in Kiev; joined 'Going to the People,' propagandizing in villages with false passports
1874–1878Arrested; held in St. Petersburg House of Preliminary Detention; convicted at Trial of the 193 — first woman sentenced to katorga (5 years, Kara mines)
1878–1896Served katorga at Kara, exiled to Barguzin and Selenginsk; recaptured after 1881 escape, 4 more years katorga; 22 years imprisonment/exile; interviewed by George Kennan
1896–1901Released under Nicholas II coronation amnesty; with Grigory Gershuni revived populist movement in Minsk, laid groundwork for SR Party
1901–1903Co-founded Socialist Revolutionary Party; toured Russia illegally with Gershuni building organization; led creation of SR Combat Organization
1903–1905Fled to Geneva; attended 1904 Amsterdam Congress of the Second International; toured U.S. raising ~$10,000; nicknamed 'Babushka'
1905–1910Returned to Russia for the 1905 Revolution; betrayed by Yevno Azef in 1908, arrested and held in Peter and Paul Fortress
1910–1917Sentenced to Siberian exile for life; 1913 escape attempt failed 7 miles from Irkutsk; solitary confinement in Yakutsk; U.S. protests secured return to Irkutsk
1917Returned to Petrograd after February Revolution, welcomed by Kerensky; chaired Pre-Parliament as oldest member; opposed Bolshevik takeover, appealed for Czechoslovak Legion intervention
1918–1934Exiled via Vladivostok and Japan to U.S.; lobbied for White intervention; settled in Czechoslovakia via Paris; organized Carpatho-Russian Labor Party; died near Prague
The great unifier of the Russian revolutionary movement, from the Chaikovtsy to the Left SRs
'I have complete discord with Lenin... I no longer believe in Lenin' — in 1919, on the eve of exile, breaking with the Bolsheviks after half a century of shared struggle.
Mark Natanson was a pivotal organizer who built the institutional backbone of the Russian revolutionary movement across half a century: co-founding the Circle of Tchaikovsky, Land and Liberty, and the People's Rights Party, and serving on the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Known as the 'Ivan Kalita of the revolution' for his talent in unifying dispersed circles, he stood with Lenin as an internationalist at the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences during the First World War. In 1917 he led the formation of the Left SRs and later the Party of Revolutionary Communism, backing the Bolsheviks through the October Revolution, but grew disillusioned as the regime turned toward one-party dictatorship, leaving the words 'I no longer believe in Lenin' before fleeing into exile.
Career timeline
1871Co-founder, Circle of Tchaikovsky
1876Organized Kazan Square demonstration with Plekhanov; co-founder, Land and Liberty
1893Founder, People's Rights Party (Народное право)
1906Elected to Central Committee, Socialist Revolutionary Party
1915–1916Participated in Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences
Last survivor of the Narodnaya Volya Executive Committee who spent 20 years in solitary confinement and wrote its definitive memoir
"I often wondered: could my life have ended in anything other than the dock? And every time I answered: no!" — at the 'Trial of the 14,' 1884
Born into a noble family in Kazan Governorate, Figner studied medicine at the University of Zurich, where she joined the revolutionary 'Fritsche' circle. Elected to the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya in 1879, she helped plan Alexander II's assassination and was the only committee member to evade arrest after the 1881 attack. Betrayed in 1883, she spent 20 years in solitary confinement at Shlisselburg, then wrote the memoir 'Запечатлённый труд' (Memoirs of a Revolutionist, 1921–22), a definitive primary source on the revolutionary movement. Though she never joined the Bolshevik Party, she remained in the USSR and during the Great Purge wrote appeals to Stalin seeking clemency for old comrades.
Career timeline
1872–1875Medical studies in Zurich and Bern; member of the 'Fritsche' circle
1876–1879'Going to the People' propaganda in Samara and Saratov; worked as a paramedic
1879–1883Narodnaya Volya Executive Committee; planned assassination of Alexander II
1883–1884Arrested; 'Trial of the 14,' death sentence commuted to life imprisonment
1884–190420 years solitary confinement, Shlisselburg Fortress
1906–1915Exile abroad; organized Paris Committee for Aid to Political Prisoners
1917Executive Committee, All-Russian Soviet of Peasant Deputies; Constituent Assembly candidate
1921–1932Published memoirs; active in Society of Former Political Prisoners and Exiles
