Evgenia Bogdanovna Bosch
Евгения Богдановна Бош
First woman to lead a Soviet government, between revolution and terminal illness
As German troops advanced on Kyiv, Bosch refused to abandon the city without a fight. Her comrades had to forcibly evacuate her.
A Bolshevik of German settler background, she became the first woman to head a Soviet government as acting leader of Ukraine's People's Secretariat in 1917. In Swiss exile she opposed Lenin on the national question; later she signed the Left Opposition's Declaration of 46. She died in 1925 after years of incurable illness.
Career timeline
- 1901Joined RSDLP; active in Bolshevik faction after the 1903 split
- 1907–1911Underground revolutionary work in Kyiv; secretary of the Kyiv Committee
- 1912–1914Arrested, exiled to Siberia, escaped via Japan and the US to Switzerland
- 1914–1917Swiss exile; opposed Lenin on the national question in the 'Baugy group'
- 1917.04–07Chair of South-Western Regional Party Committee; VI Party Congress delegate
- 1917.12–1918.03Acting head, People's Secretariat of Ukraine; People's Secretary of Internal Affairs
- 1918–1919Chair of Penza Party Committee; political commissar on Caspian-Caucasus Front
- 1923–1924Joined the Left Opposition; signed the Declaration of 46