Maria Alexandrovna Spiridonova (; 16 October 1884 – 11 September 1941) was a
Narodnik
The Narodniks were members of a movement of the Russian Empire intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, Narodnism or ,; , similar to the ...
-inspired
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
n
revolution
In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...
ary. In 1906, as a novice member of a local combat group of the
Tambov
Tambov ( , ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Central Federal District, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna River (Moksha basin), Tsna ...
Socialists-Revolutionaries (SRs), she assassinated a security official. Her subsequent abuse by police earned her enormous popularity with the opponents of
Tsarism
Tsarist autocracy (), also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire. In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority and ...
throughout the empire and even abroad.
After spending over 11 years in Siberian prisons she was freed after the
February Revolution of 1917
The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of two revolutions which took place in Russia in 1917.
The main ...
, and returned to
European Russia
European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia ...
as a heroine of the destitute, and especially of the peasants. According to
G.D.H. Cole, she was, along with
Alexandra Kollontai
Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (; , ; – 9 March 1952) was a Russian revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Marxist theoretician. Serving as the People's Commissar for Welfare in Vladimir Lenin's government in 1917–1918, she was a highl ...
, one of the most prominent women leaders during the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
, leading the
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
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 ...
to initially side with
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
and the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
, and then to break with them.
From January 1918 onwards, Spiridonova faced repression from the Soviet government, as she was repeatedly arrested, imprisoned, briefly detained in a mental sanitarium, and sent into internal exile, before eventually being shot in 1941 in the
Medvedev Forest massacre
The Medvedev Forest massacre () or Orel massacre (Орловский расстрел) was a mass execution in the Soviet Union carried out by the Soviet secret police NKVD on 11 September 1941. Less than three months after the German invasion ...
. A successful campaign was run to discredit her name and portray her as a hysterical extremist, and she was "forced into oblivion". In 1958, when publishing the fourth volume of ''A History of Socialist Thought'', G.D.H. Cole wrote that nothing was known of what had happened to her after 1920. Twenty years later,
Richard Stites
Richard Stites (December 2, 1931 – March 7, 2010) was a historian of Russian culture and professor of history at Georgetown University, famed for "landmark work on the Russian women’s movement and in numerous articles and books on Russian and ...
was still uncertain whether her death occurred in 1937 or 1941. Only after the end of
Stalinism
Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...
and the
fall of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of Nationalities, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. :s: ...
did it gradually become possible to reconstruct the last decades of her life.
Biography
Early life

Spiridonova was born in the city of
Tambov
Tambov ( , ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Central Federal District, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna River (Moksha basin), Tsna ...
, located approximately south-southeast of
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. Her father, a bank official, was a member of the non-hereditary minor
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...
of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
.
[Rabinowitch, "Spiridonova," pg. 182.] She attended the local
gymnasium until 1902, when the death of her father, and a first attack of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
, caused her to drop out. She studied
dentistry
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the Human tooth, teeth, gums, and Human mouth, mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, dis ...
in Moscow for a short while, before returning to Tambov to work as a clerk for the local
Assembly of the Nobility. She soon became involved in political activism and was arrested during the student demonstrations of March 1905. In September 1905 she applied for training as a
feldsher
A feldsher (, , , , , , ) is a health care professional who provides various medical services limited to emergency treatment and ambulance practice. As such, a feldsher is one kind of mid-level medical practitioner.
In Russia, Ukraine and in ...
(a health care professional similar to a
physician assistant
A physician assistant or physician associate (PA) is a type of non-physician practitioner. While these job titles are used internationally, there is significant variation in training and scope of practice from country to country, and sometimes be ...
) but was rejected due to her political record. Instead, she joined the
Party of Socialists–Revolutionaries (SRs) and became a full-time activist. During this time, she formed a relationship with
Vladimir Vol'skii, a local SR leader.
Like most SRs, she shared the
Narodniks
The Narodniks were members of a movement of the Russian Empire intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, Narodnism or ,; , similar to the ...
' philosophy of assassination and terrorism as a weapon of revolution, and was one of hundreds of SRs who, in the years around the
1905 Revolution
The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...
, attacked the Russian state and its leaders.
Luzhenovsky assassination
Spiridonova's target was , a landowner and
Tambov
Tambov ( , ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Central Federal District, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna River (Moksha basin), Tsna ...
provincial councillor who had been appointed district security chief in
Borisoglebsk
Borisoglebsk () is a town in Voronezh Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Vorona River near its confluence with the Khopyor. Population: 65,000 (1969).
History
Borisoglebsk was founded in 1646 and was named for the Russian s ...
, a town southeast of Tambov. Luzhenovsky, also a local leader of the
Union of the Russian People (the most important branch of the
Black Hundred
The Black Hundreds were reactionary, Monarchism, monarchist, and ultra-nationalist groups in Russian Empire, Russia in the early 20th century. They were staunch supporters of the House of Romanov, and opposed any retreat from the autocracy of the ...
), was known for his harsh suppression of peasant unrest in the district, and the SR committee in Tambov had "passed a death sentence on him". Spiridonova volunteered to kill him. She stalked Luzhenovsky for several days, and finally got her chance at the Borisoglebsk railway station on 16 January 1906. Disguised as a secondary school student, she fired several shots from a revolver and hit Luzhenovsky five times. He died on 10 February 1906.
[Boniece, "The Spiridonova Case", pp. 127–151.]
Unable to escape, Spiridonova tried to shoot herself but was restrained, brutally beaten and arrested by Luzhenovsky's
Cossack
The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...
guard. She was then transferred to the local police station where she was stripped naked, searched and mocked by her captors. She was interrogated and tortured for more than half a day by two government officials, P.F. Avramov, head of the Cossack guard, and T.S. Zhdanov, a local police officer. That night she was transported to Tambov by train. During the journey, Avramov subjected her to further ill-treatment and sexual harassment, possibly rape.
The Luzhenovsky assassination was one of close to two hundred acts of SR "individual terror" during the
1905 Revolution
The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...
and the two following years' turmoil. It received mainly local attention until the following month, when Spiridonova succeeded in leaking a very well-thought-out letter to the press. It described the treatment she had received, including threats of gang rape directed at her, and hinted that Avramov might have raped her on the train to Tambov. The letter was published on 12 February 1906 by ''Rus'', a liberal newspaper in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, and soon taken up by others, becoming an immediate sensation with their readers.
Progressive public opinion in Russia traditionally tended to consider terrorism with a certain degree of understanding, as it was regarded as a natural reaction against autocracy. For example, in 1878, a jury caused a sensation by acquitting
populist
Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...
terrorist
Vera Zasulich
Vera Ivanovna Zasulich (; – 8 May 1919) was a Russian socialist activist, Menshevik writer and revolutionary. She is widely known for her correspondence with Karl Marx, in which she put into question the necessity of a capitalist industriali ...
despite her pleading guilty to causing serious injury to Colonel
Fyodor Trepov during a failed attempt to assassinate him. In the case of Spiridonova, many were outraged by the appalling cruelty to a prisoner, especially as she was an attractive young woman. Liberal circles throughout Russia condemned the Tambov authorities.
Spiridonova was described as "a pure, virginal being, a flower of spiritual beauty
.. eing putinto the shaggy paws of brutally repulsive, brutally malicious, brutally salacious
orangutan
Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...
s".
''Rus'' sent reporter Vsevolod A. Vladimirov to Tambov. He produced seven sensational articles that appeared in March 1906. These articles exaggerated Spiridonova's mistreatment and injuries, and more explicitly touched on her alleged rape. Vladimirov also glossed over Spiridonova's political convictions, portraying her as a genteel, high-principled victim of the tyrannical Russian system. This annoyed the Tambov SRs almost as much as it did the conservatives and the authorities. Spiridonova herself repudiated Vladimirov's account.
On 11 March, Spiridonova was tried and convicted of Luzhenovsky's murder and sentenced to death. However, the tribunal also asked that the sentence be commuted to penal servitude 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 ...
, in view of her ill health. This was approved on 20 March.
The liberal press continued its campaign in her support. On 2 April, Avramov was himself assassinated, creating a further sensation.
The government released its report on the case on 8 April. The report acknowledged that Spiridonova had been beaten by the Cossacks at the time of her arrest and that Avramov had verbally abused her on the train, but denied all the more lurid accusations. This was denounced by some as a whitewash.
Secret letters from Spiridonova in prison to her sister Yulia, a fellow SR, had been seized by police on 19 February and were summarized by the Tambov deputy prosecutor in a report to the national authorities. His extracts indicate that Spiridonova consciously participated in the image-making that was going on outside, suggesting what should be emphasized and what should be played down.
A request in one letter not to reveal her "romantic history", presumably her relationship with Volsky, was quoted. Many liberals called this an attempt to slander her morals. The governor of Tambov had known about the affair (Spiridonova appealed for a meeting with Volsky, whom she described as her fiancé although he was already married), but did not pass on the information, which would have demolished Spiridonova's "virginal" image.
Spiridonova was sent to Siberia in the company of five other prominent female SR terrorists. The group was sometimes called the ''Shesterka'' ("Six"). As a result of the press campaign, Spiridonova was the most famous. She was also young, attractive, and an ethnic Russian (at least four of the others were
Jew
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish,
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 ...
ian, and
Ukrainian). The ''Shesterka'' were transported by train from Moscow to the
Nerchinsk katorga, a system of
penal labor
Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of Sentence (law), sentence involving penal labour hav ...
colonies in
Transbaikal
Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykal'ye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal at the south side of the eastern Si ...
(east of
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...
and near the border of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
). Their slow journey lasted around a month and turned into a kind of triumphal progress: the train was met at every stop by growing crowds of sympathizers. Each time, although she was suffering from a serious recurrence of tuberculosis, Spiridonova would get up from her couch, greet the audience with smiles and patiently answer their numerous questions, expounding the SR political program.
Aleksandra Izmailovich, one of the ''Shesterka'', later commented:
Spiridonova and her comrades were first detained in the
Akatuy penal colony. The prison regime of the colony was exceedingly mild, more similar to a sort of internal exile or political confinement than to a real prison. In 1907, however, they were moved to the new female colony that had been established at Maltsev, another centre of the
Nerchinsk katorga. Here the rules of detention were somewhat stricter, though not so extreme as in "the regimes of punishment and mistreatment that 'politicals' endured elsewhere" (including beatings, floggings and isolation in dark, freezing cells). "For the Maltsev women there was no forced labor, only enforced isolation from the outside world in which each day was like the next and the one that had gone before".
In 1908, a young Ukrainian
maximalist,
Irina Konstantinovna Kakhovskaya, arrived at Maltsev. She had been convicted of involvement in a terrorist group. Kakhovskaya was a descendant of
Decembrist revolutionary
Pyotr Grigoryevich Kakhovsky, who had been hanged in 1826 for assassinating Saint Petersburg Governor
Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich and another
Grenadier
A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word ''grenade'') was historically an assault-specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in siege operation battles. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when ...
officer. She formed a special friendship with Spiridonova and Izmailovich, a bond of political and personal sisterhood that would last throughout their lives.
In April 1911, 28 female inmates, including Spiridonova, were transferred back to Akatuy where the conditions of their detention were further worsened and they were forced to work in a bookbindery. The constant physical work, however, was eventually welcomed by the detainees and made their prison life more tolerable.
Left SR leader
Accommodation with the revolution
After the
February Revolution
The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...
of 1917, Spiridinova was released from incarceration at the women's Akatuy prison by a general amnesty covering imprisoned political criminals.
According to
Alexander Rabinowitch, Spiridonova was widely esteemed by the common people of Russia, being venerated by many peasants as very nearly a
saint
In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...
.
Spiridonova traveled from Siberia to Moscow to attend the 3rd National Congress of the
Party of Socialists-Revolutionaries (the SRs) late in May 1917, but she was not elected to the governing Central Committee of the party.
Despite this failure, Spiridonova became deeply involved in party affairs as a leader of the SR left wing and of the party's organization in the capital city of
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
. She was also involved in work helping to establish
soviets
The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" ().
Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...
amongst the peasantry.
[Rabinowitch, "Spiridonova," pg. 183.]

Following the
October Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
, Spiridonova cast her lot with the
Left SRs, who had split from their old party and sided with their erstwhile rivals of the
Bolshevik Party
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
.
She was extremely supportive of efforts to forge a unity government between the Bolsheviks, the Left SRs, and the other socialist parties represented in the Soviets, but when it proved impossible to reach a general agreement, she supported the Left SRs entering into a coalition government with only the Bolsheviks. Her name was included by the railroad union (
Vikzhel) in a list of possible candidate ministers for the unity government, but she did not take a ministerial role in the new Bolshevik-Left SR government. Instead, she was appointed head of the Peasant Section of the
Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviet of Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Deputies (VTsIK), making her nominally a chief official over peasant affairs.
She was later one of a handful of Left SR leaders offering early support for
Lenin's decision to agree to the draconian peace terms offered by the government of
Imperial Germany
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
in 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 ...
.
As the head of the Peasant Section of the VTsIK, Spiridonova appeared almost exclusively focused on winning the approval of the soviets and enforcement of an SR-inspired law of land socialization, constituting agrarian reform. The law was eventually passed on 19 February 1918. Consequently, for some months she strived primarily to safeguard the alliance with the Bolsheviks, even at the cost of being temporarily sidelined within her own party.
On 18 January 1918, at the inaugural meeting of the
Constituent Assembly
A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...
, both the Left SRs and the Bolsheviks proposed Spiridonova as their candidate for the chair, but centrist SR
Víktor Mikhailovich Chernov was elected instead. The Assembly was dissolved for good after the end of that same first session.
Revolt against Bolshevism
The honeymoon between Spiridonova (and the Left SRs generally) and the Bolsheviks was short-lived. Late in the spring of 1918, Bolshevik military detachments were formed to conduct forced requisitions of grain in a desperate effort to stave off famine in the cities amidst economic collapse.
"The brutal Bolshevik grain-procurement policy and the devastating impact on the peasantry of the Soviet government's vast territorial and increasingly onerous economic concessions to Imperial Germany" caused widespread discontent in the countryside and the Peasant Section of the VTsIK was overwhelmed with complaints and protests. As head of the Section, Spiridonova was especially aware of the deepening misery of peasants throughout the country. Unity between Left SRs and Bolsheviks turned to rivalry over the future of the revolution and a competition ensued for control of the
5th Congress of Soviets, scheduled to begin in Moscow on 4 July 1918.
Historian
Alexander Rabinowitch summarized the prelude to what he would later term "the suicide of the Left SRs" in his work on the first year of Soviet rule in Petrograd:
On 7 July 1918, two members of the Left SR Party,
Iakov Bliumkin and , assassinated German
ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...
Wilhelm Mirbach.
Spiridonova immediately assumed the "political" responsibility for the attack on behalf of the party's Central Committee. In her 1937 letter to the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
(see below), she claimed also to have directed the attack (even showing a sort of "professional' pride).
The confrontation with the government, however, did not evolve as the Left SR leadership expected. At the time of Mirbach's assassination, the Left SRs enjoyed undoubted military superiority in the Moscow area and within the Cheka, but they "showed no inclination to press home" this advantage: they appeared "much less interested in seizing power themselves than they were in calling for a popular uprising to force the Bolsheviks to change their policies. The Left SRs had no idea where this uprising would end up: they were happy to leave that to the 'revolutionary creativity of the masses'." For his part, Lenin, far from fueling a new conflagration with Germany, used Mirbach's assassination as a pretext for the suppression of the Left SR organization, the terrorist attack being immediately portrayed as a straightforward uprising against Soviet power.
[Rabinowitch, "Spiridonova," p. 184.] Lenin promptly summoned
Jukums Vācietis
Jukums Vācietis (; – 28 July 1938) was a Latvian and Soviet military commander. He was a rare example of a notable Soviet leader who was not a member of the Communist Party (or of any other political party), until his demise during the Great ...
, the commander of the
Latvian Riflemen
The Latvian Riflemen (; ) were originally a military formation of the Imperial Russian Army assembled starting 1915 in Latvia in order to defend Baltic governorates against the German Empire in World War I. Initially, the battalions were forme ...
, now headquartered in the outskirts of the capital, and secured their support; albeit not immediately available, they were the only military forces capable of effectively opposing the units controlled by the Left Social Revolutionaries. While the latter continued "to rise up" without even moving from their barracks, Spiridonova and her comrades hastened to the Bolshoi Theatre, where she delivered an inflamed speech against the Bolshevik regime before the ongoing Congress of Soviets, which they evidently regarded as the supreme authority in the Soviet republic. In the meantime, the theatre security forces proceeded to seal the building and detain all the Left SR delegates therein. Later, the Bolsheviks recaptured the Cheka headquarters at the
Lubyanka and overcame the Cheka Combat Detachment commanded by Left SR
Dmitry Popov, the unit that had taken over the Pokrovsky barracks and arrested
Felix Dzerzhinsky
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (; ; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix (), was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka a ...
when he had gone there to arrest Mirbach's assassins. Thus ended the
Left SR uprising, and historian
Orlando Figes
Orlando Guy Figes (; born 20 November 1959) is a British and German historian and writer. He was a professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he was made Emeritus Professor on his retirement in 2022.
Figes is known f ...
notes that "it was not a ''coup d'état'' but—not unlike the Bolsheviks' own
July uprising of 1917—a suicidal act of public protest to galvanize 'the masses' against the regime. At no point did the Left SRs ever really think of taking power. They were only 'playing at revolution'."
Spiridonova and many other Left SR leaders were imprisoned in Moscow, her Peasant Section of the VTsIK was dissolved,
and an undisclosed number of other party members (over 200 according to Spiridonova herself) were summarily executed.
After she was kept in jail for several months, it was announced that Spiridonova was to be tried on 1 December 1918. To undercut the possibility of a potentially volatile situation developing, a secret trial was conducted on 27 November instead.
Spiridonova was sentenced to one year in prison for her part in the Left SR revolt but was amnestied the next day.
Further imprisonment
Spiridonova became the voice of a radical faction of the Left SRs opposed to any accommodation with the "Communist" regime (as the Bolsheviks now styled themselves) and she publicly denounced the government for having betrayed the revolution with its policies and actions.
[Rabinowitch, "Spiridonova," pg. 185.] Despite her bitter refusal to compromise, Spiridonova remained separate from the party's ultra-left terrorist wing, focusing on the idea of revitalizing the system of Soviets in opposition to the rule of the Communist party by bureaucratic edict.
In January 1919, after another public speech in opposition to the Communist government, Spiridonova was arrested by the Moscow
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...
.
She was tried once more on 24 February 1919, with ex
Left Communist
Left communism, or the communist left, is a position held by the left wing of communism, which criticises the political ideas and practices held by Marxist–Leninists and social democrats. Left communists assert positions which they regard ...
leader
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (; rus, Николай Иванович Бухарин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ bʊˈxarʲɪn; – 15 March 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and Marxist theorist. A prominent Bolshevik ...
as the sole witness for the prosecution. Bukharin charged that Spiridonova was mentally ill and a menace to society in the deadly political atmosphere of the
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
.
Spiridonova was found guilty and sentenced to one year's incarceration in a mental
sanitarium, effectively removing her from politics.
Instead of a sanitarium, Spiridonova was actually confined in a small holding cell inside a military
barracks
Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...
in the
Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin (fortification), Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Mosco ...
, where her already frail health rapidly deteriorated.
Left SR militants organized her escape on 2 April 1919. Spiridonova subsequently lived underground in Moscow as a peasant woman under the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...
Onufrieva.
She was rearrested 19 months later, ill with
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...
and suffering from an unstated nervous disorder;
it was "the night of October 26, 1920, exactly three years after the victory of the October Revolution". This time, the Communist authorities proved somewhat more merciful than usual: given her extremely poor health, Spiridonova was initially put under house arrest. Alexandra Izmailovich was transferred from
Butyrka prison and charged with nursing her, along with the party co-leader,
Boris Kamkov, then possibly Spiridonova's romantic partner as well. Kamkov was with her at the moment of arrest and was permitted to stay beside her for the next four months. She was later transferred to a
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...
medical facility, then confined in a psychiatric prison.
She was finally released to the custody of two Left SR comrades on 18 November 1921 under the condition that she cease all political activity.
Historian
Alexander Rabinowitch comments that there is no evidence that she ever violated this condition.
[Rabinowitch, "Spiridonova," pg. 186.] Spiridonova's active political life was at an end.
Persecution, death and legacy
Despite her withdrawal from active politics, she was arrested again on 16 May 1923. At the time, large numbers of moderate socialist and liberal leaders were permitted or obliged to emigrate to the West (including the two
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
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 ...
to whom Spiridonova had been entrusted). Nevertheless, Spiridonova was charged with "having made preparations to flee abroad" and sentenced to three years of administrative exile, a sentence that was repeatedly extended. She spent the rest of the 1920s in
Kaluga
Kaluga (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Its population was 337,058 at the 2021 census.
Kaluga's most famous residen ...
(1923–25),
Samarkand
Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...
(1925–28) and
Tashkent
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
(1928–30). In 1930, after
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
's consolidation of power, Spiridonova was arrested once again. Charged with maintaining contacts abroad, she was sentenced to three more years of administrative exile (twice extended), this time in
Ufa, capital of the
Bashkir Republic. She lived with her former prison partner Izmailovich during the whole period of exile. Kakhovskaya also spent time with them as often and as long as she was permitted to. In the mid-1920s, Spiridonova had also married her fellow exile , a Left SR leader of peasant origin and erstwhile Deputy People's Commissar for Agriculture.

In 1937, Spiridonova was arrested yet again, with several former party comrades including her husband, her teenaged stepson, her invalid father-in-law, Alexandra Izmailovich, Irina Kakhovskaya and the latter's aged aunt. The group was accused of plotting to create a united counter-revolutionary center and to assassinate Bashkir Communist leaders. Spiridonova underwent cruel interrogation in prison in Ufa and in Moscow for several months, without admitting any guilt, although a confession was extorted from her husband. In November 1937, she wrote a long letter to the 4th Section of the
Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) within the
People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) from her cell, protesting against the prison treatment inflicted on her, contesting the correctness of the judicial procedure and rejecting every single charge. The letter proclaimed that she fully supported the construction of socialism and acknowledged the Communist leadership. However, she concluded what was later called her "last testament" with a vibrant heart-felt plea against capital punishment, twice abolished in the aftermaths of the
February
February is the second month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 in leap years, with the February 29, 29th day being called the ''leap day''.
February is the third a ...
and
October Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
s and twice re-established by subsequent governments despite vehement protests from the Left Social-Revolutionaries:
On 7 January 1938, she was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison by the
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court. After a hunger strike, she was held in isolation at
Oryol Prison. On 11 September 1941 (three months after the
German invasion of the USSR), Spiridonova, Izmailovich, Mayorov and over 150 other political prisoners (among them
Christian Rakovsky
Christian Georgiyevich Rakovsky ( – September 11, 1941), Bulgarian name Krastyo Georgiev Rakovski, born Krastyo Georgiev Stanchov, was a Bulgarian-born socialist Professional revolutionaries, revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet Un ...
and
Olga Kameneva
Olga Davidovna Kameneva (, ; – 11 September 1941) (née Bronstein — Бронште́йн) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician. She was the sister of Leon Trotsky and the wife of Lev Kamenev.
Childhood and revolutio ...
) were executed by order of Stalin in the
Medvedevsky Forest massacre.
Despite Kakhovskaya's efforts after the 1956
20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union () was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's " Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictator ...
, "not until 1990 were the 1941 charges against Spiridonova rescinded
..Finally, in 1992,
hewas exonerated of the charges for which she had been imprisoned and exiled beginning in 1918, and was fully rehabilitated" by the
Russian Federation
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. The exact burial place of the Medvedevsky Forest victims has never been found.
Spiridonova in Russian culture
Some of Russia's major poets, such as
Maksimilian Voloshin, dedicated their poems to Spiridonova during the First Revolution. Russian historian Yaroslav Leontiev believes that
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator.
Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...
also immortalized Spiridonova (but already without being able to name her directly), in the first few lines of his poem "The Year 1905", published in 1926.
Notes
References
*
* Sally A. Boniece
"The Spiridonova Case, 1906: Terror, Myth and Martyrdom,"in Anthony Anemone (ed.), ''Just Assassins: The Culture of Terrorism in Russia.'' Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2010, pp. 127–151.
* Sally A. Boniece, ''The
Shesterka of 1905–06: Terrorist Heroines of Revolutionary Russia''; «Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas», New Series, Vol. 58, 2, 2010, pp. 172–191
*
George Douglas Howard Cole, ''A History of Socialist Thought'', volume IV: ''Communism and Social Democracy 1914–1931'', London–New York: Macmillan-St. Martin's Press, 1958, parts I and II
*
* Anna Geifman, ''Thou shalt kill: revolutionary terrorism in Russia, 1894–1917'', Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1993,
* Margaret Maxwell, ''Narodniki women: Russian women who sacrificed themselves for the dream of freedom'', Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1990.
* Jane McDermid, ''Mariya Spiridonova: Russian Martyr and British Heroine? The Portrayal of a Russian Female Terrorist in the Britich Press'', in
Ian D. Thatcher (ed), ''Reinterpreting Revolutionary Russia: Essays in Honour of James D. White'', Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp. 36–54,
*
Alexander Rabinowitch. "Maria Spiridonova's 'Last Testament'", ''Russian Review'', Vol. 54, No. 3 (July 1995), pp. 424–446
* Alexander Rabinowitch, ''The Bolsheviks in power: the first year of Soviet rule in Petrograd'', Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
*
*
Isaac Nachman Steinberg, ''Spiridonova: Revolutionary Terrorist.'' London: Methuen, 1935
External links
Maria Spiridonovaat
Spartacus Educational
Spartacus Educational is a free online encyclopedia with essays and other educational material on a wide variety of historical subjects, principally the struggle for equality and democracy as part of British history from 1700 and the history of ...
* Emma Goldman
''My Disillusionment in Russia: Chapter 16: Maria Spiridonova,''www.marxists.org/
Short biography at History Today
* "Spiridonova – Armed Love" (2017; 51 min), screened as part of th
London Anarchist Bookfare2017 program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv6Kn1ixAv0.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spiridonova, Maria
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