Evgenia Nikolaevna Semenovskaya (Simonovskaya) (, 1895–1976) was a Russian ophthalmologist and revolutionary politician. At a young age she was a

Socialist-Revolutionary The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia. The party memb ...

(later

Left Socialist-Revolutionary The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries-Internationalists () was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revolution. In 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Russian Pro ...

) leader in

Ufa Ufa is a city in Russia and the capital of the republic of Bashkortostan. UFA or Ufa may also refer to: Places * Ufa (river), a river in Russia; a tributary of the Belaya * Ufa International Airport, near the Russian city * Ufa railway statio ...

during 1917–1918, and would then be one of the main leaders of the short-lived

Party of Revolutionary Communism Party of Revolutionary Communism (in Russian: Партия революционного коммунизма) was a political party in Russia 1918–1920. It was formed by a Narodnik group which broke away from the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries a ...

. She left politics in 1920 and would pursue a long research career in

ophthalmology Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

Revolution in Ufa

Semenovskaya was born in 1895.Память, Issue 3
Khronika Press, 1980. p. 384 During her youth she was active in the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries. In 1917 she sided with the Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (internationalists). By late 1917 she was a member of the

Revolutionary Committee and the

Ufa Governorate Ufa Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire with its capital in the city of Ufa. It was created in 1865 by separation from Orenburg Governorate. On June 14, 1922 the governorate was transformed i ...

Committee of the PLSR(i). With the establishment of

soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

power in the area, she was placed in charge of the Commissariat for Popular Education in Ufa. She was the editor of ''Zemlya i volya'' ('Land and Will'), the organ of PLSR(i) in Ufa.
Periodicheskai͡a pechatʹ v Rossii v 1917 godu: bibliograficheskiĭ ukazatelʹ, Vol. 1
'. Gos. publichnai͡a︡ biblioteka im. M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrina, 1987. p. 196 In May 1918, in protest against the PLSR(i) Central Committee line on the

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, whi ...

, she resigned from the PLSR(i) Governorate Committee. In the aftermath of the failed 6–7 July 1918 uprising of the PLSR(i) Semenovskaya was elected president of the PLSR(i) Ufa Governorate Committee. She stayed in this role for two months, before joining the dissident Party of Revolutionary Communism.

Party of Revolutionary Communism

At the founding congress of the Party of Revolutionary Communism held in September 1918, Semenovskaya was elected as a candidate member of the party Central Committee. A few months later, at the Second Congress of the Party of Revolutionary Communism held in December 1918 Semenovskaya had emerged as the main theoretician of the party and presented the political line of the party – calling for rapprochement with the Bolsheviks not on an Orthodox Marxist platform but based on 'integral socialism'. Arguing for 'integral socialism' Semenovskaya denounced the 'one-sided dictatorship of the proletariat' and called instead for the 'dictatorship of the entire toiling class' (диктатурой всего класса трудящихся).Политические партии России: конец XIX – первая треть XX века : энциклопедия
РОССПЭН, 1996. pp. 430–431 Semenovskaya supported unity with other elements from the Socialist-Revolutionary movement. In June 1919 she traveled to

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

along with G. N. Maksimov, to meet with the leadership of the Ukrainian Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (Borbysts).Григорий Николаевич Севостьянов
Политические партии в российских революциях в начале ХХ века
Наука, 2005. pp. 363, 367–368 On 8 September 1919 she signed the declaration to 'To all revolutionary populists' together with Zitta on behalf of the Party of Revolutionary Communism.Валентин Валентинович Шелохаев
Партия левых социалистов-революционеров: Июль 1917 г.-май 1918 г
РОССПЭН, 2000. p. 786 She delivered the report of the Unification Organizational Bureau at the 6th All-Russian Conference of the

Union of Socialists-Revolutionaries-Maximalists Union of Socialists-Revolutionaries-Maximalists () was a political party in the Russian Empire, a radical wing expelled from the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1906. The Union united agrarian terrorists, the 'Moscow Opposition' and other radic ...

. But at the Fourth Party Congress of the Party of Revolutionary Communism held in October 1918, Semenovkaya and others who favoured unification with other populists were defeated 's group. Subsequently the Central Committee majority decided to expel Semenovskaya, Zitta, Maksimov and V. Bezel from the party for 'violation of party discipline' and for seeking unity with populist sectors (including groups such as the PLSR(i) or the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries). After their expulsion from the Party of Revolutionary Communism, Zitta and Semenovskaya tried to conduct some independent political activities (mainly in Ukraine).

Scientific career

After 1920 Semenovskaya withdrew from political activities. At the time she lived in Ukraine. She moved to Moscow, where she worked as the secretary at the representative office of the All-Ukrainian State Joint Stock Trade Company (BAKOT) and other cooperative organizations, whilst pursuing university studies. She graduated from medical school in 1927.Лига выдающихся джентельменов и блестящих дам. Том I
Вклад женщин-врачей в развитие учения о глаукоме
/ref> As a scientist she would author more than 40 works on the psychophysiology of vision. From the 1930s to the 1950s she worked as a senior researcher at the . She studied the lability (mobility) of the cerebral cortex and retina in patients with glaucoma. She got a doctorate in biological sciences in 1955. Semenovskaya died in 1976, at the age of 79.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Semenovskaya, Evgenia 1895 births 1976 deaths Left socialist-revolutionaries People from Ufa Russian medical researchers Party of Revolutionary Communism politicians Soviet ophthalmologists Soviet women physicians Women medical researchers