Maria Stefania Bohuszewiczówna (1865–1887) was a Polish revolutionary and a leader of the First Proletariat party.

Biography

Bohuszewiczówna was born on 4 January 1865 in the village of Ceperce (near

Slutsk Slutsk is a town in Minsk Region, in central Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slutsk District, and is located on the Sluch (Belarus), Sluch River south of the capital Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 59,450. Geography ...

in what is now

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

). She moved to Warsaw in 1874. In 1882 and 1883 she attended courses at the

Flying University The Flying University (, less often translated as "Floating University") was an underground educational Betty Jean Lifton, ''The King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak''p. 35 St. Martin's Press, 1997, enterprise Peter Brock, Joh ...

. From 1882 she was active in the

Political Red Cross Political Red Cross was the name borne by several organizations that provided aid to political prisoners in the Russian Empire and later in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union. The first organization using this name was founded in St. Petersburg i ...

. After a wave of arrests in July 1884, Bohuszewiczówna, aged 19, was elected to lead the central committee of the First Proletariat party. On 2 March 1885 Bohuszewiczówna organized a demonstration for the unemployed at

Castle Square Castle Square may refer to: *Castle Square, Sheffield, England *Castle Square, Warsaw Castle Square (, ) is a historic square in front of the Royal Castle – the former official residence of Polish monarchs – located in Warsaw, Poland. It ...

. For this activity she was arrested on 29 September 1885, and imprisoned in the

Warsaw Citadel Warsaw Citadel (Polish language, Polish: Cytadela Warszawska) is a 19th-century fortress in Warsaw, Poland. It was built by order of Tsar Nikolay I of Russia, Nicholas I after the suppression of the 1830 November Uprising in order to bolster im ...

. After Bohuszewiczówna's arrest, leadership of the party went to Marian Ulrych. On 12 May 1887 she was sentenced to internal exile in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. She died in 1887 in

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yenisey, Yenisey River, and is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a p ...

while on the way to her assigned location. Bohuszewiczówna was the great-granddaughter of the Polish statesman

Tadeusz Kościuszko Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko (; 4 or 12 February 174615 October 1817) was a Polish Military engineering, military engineer, statesman, and military leader who then became a national hero in Poland, the United States, Lithuania, and ...

References

1865 births 1887 deaths Polish revolutionaries Polish people who died in prison custody Date of death unknown Revolutionaries from the Russian Empire {{Socialist-stub