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Birthday anniversary of Yekaterina K. Breshko-Breskovskaya (“grandmother” of the Russian revolution), Russian political figure
Remembering my attitude to Katya Breshkovskaya ... I cannot define it with any other word than "awe." There was something exceptional about Breshkovskaya, peculiar to her only that made me - and not just me - to bow before her. These were not any new ideas, not special talents, but her huge, lively, passionate love for the people ... She was able to love not only each person from the common people, but the entire nation as a huge group.
P. B. Axelrod
13 (25) January 1844, in the village of Ivanovo, Vitebsk province, into a noble family was born Yekaterina K. Breshko-Breshkovskaya (née Verigo), leader of the Russian revolutionary movement, one of the founders and leaders of the socialist revolutionary party.
Yekaterina received a good education at home and worked for ten years in a peasant school; she organized a library, loan and savings banks, mutual benefit societies. After accusing local gentry in anti-government propaganda, the school and the peasant banks were closed. Having lost the ability to operate legally, Breshko-Breshkovskaya in 1873 entered the circle of "Tchaikovsky" and participated in "Going to the people."
In 1874 Breshko-Breshkovskaya was arrested. After three years of imprisonment, during the "Trial of 193", she was sentenced to 5 years of factory work, exiled to Siberia, tried to flee, was arrested again and condemned to penal servitude.
In 1896, being granted an amnesty, she returned to the European part of Russia, and soon, going into hiding, together with G. A. Gershuni organized delivery of illegal literature in Russia. In the early 1900's, joining the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, she organized local groups in Saratov and Poltava, contributed to the foundation of the "Battling organization".
In May 1903, Breshko-Breshkovskaya emigrated to Geneva, where she worked with N. V. Tchaikovsky and V. M. Chernov. She traveled to the U.S. to raise money for the needs of the party. In 1905, having learned about the revolution, returned to Russia, and two years later was re-arrested and exiled to Siberia, from where she returned to the capital after the February Revolution of 1917.
From Petersburg Breshko-Breshkovskaya traveled through the country and called on intellectuals to work for the people. She supported the Provisional Government, opposed the Bolsheviks and the incitement of class differences. Regarding the issue of war, Breshko-Breshkovskaya was a proponent of winning at all costs. Speaking at a meeting in front of soldiers and sailors of Petrograd, she said: "Great warriors and citizens, free us from the enemy as soon as possible. I am an old woman, I cannot go fighting, although if you asked this of me, I would go.” According to V. M. Chernov, "the war has awakened in Yekaterina Breshkovskaya an explosion of patriotic feelings. Even in exile she sews clothes for the wounded. Having given by this the duty to the sense of humanity, the more fully and freely she indulges in her other side of her nature: she wants, she demands ruthless destruction of war committers - the Germans."
Yekaterina Breshkovskaya stood for the unity of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, supported the Government of A. F. Kerensky and withdrew from the Socialist Party's Central Committee, when the Congress Party deprived him of trust. Breshko-Breshkovskaya was elected to the Constituent Assembly. She negatively reacted to the October Revolution, did not approve of the Soviet rule.
In the summer of 1918, Breshko-Breshkovskaya participated in the work of the Constituent Assembly Members Committee (Komuch) in Samara, in September – took part in the Ufa State Conference. In 1919, she emigrated to the U.S., then moved to France; from 1924 she had been living in Czechoslovakia.
Yekaterina Breshko-Breshkovskaya died September 12, 1934 in the village of Khvaly-Pochernitsa, near Prague.
Lit.: Брешко-Брешковская Е. К. Автобиография. Ревель, 1917; Она же. Бабушка Е. К. Брешко-Брешковская о самой себе. Пг., 1917; Она же. Из моих воспоминаний. СПб., 1906; Она же. Не только права, но и обязанности : (Об обязанностях свобод. граждан) Пг., 1917; Она же. О дезертирах. Пг., 1917; Она же. Обязанности свободных граждан. Пг., 1917; Она же. Письма крестьянам. М., 1917; Она же. Чёрная сотня. Пг., 1917; Она же. Что делать в Учредительном собрании. Пг., 1917; Она же. A message to the American people. N.-Y., 1919; Иванишкина Ю. В. Е. К. Брешко-Брешковская: общественно-политические взгляды и деятельность: Дис. … канд.ист.наук. М., 2006; Протоколы заседаний ЦК Партии социалистов-революционеров (июнь 1917 — март 1918 г.) с комментариями В. М. Чернова Под ред. докторов исторических наук Ю. Г. Фельштинского и Г. И. Чернявского // Вопросы истории. 2000, №№ 7, 8, 9, 10; Кирьяков В. В. Дедушка и бабушка русской революции : Н. В. Чайковский и Е. К. Брешко-Брешковская. Пг., 1917; Попов И. И. Екатерина Константиновна Брешко-Брешковская : Бабушка русской революции. М., 1917; Сарычев М. В. Русские женщины / I Бабушка русской революции Е. К. Брешко-Брешковская. Рязань, 1917.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Бабушка Брешко-Брешковская на свободе [открытка]. [Петроград, 1917];
Бабушка Е. К. Брешко-Брешковская о самой себе. Пг., 1917;
Брешко-Брешковская Е. К. Из моих воспоминаний. СПб., 1906;
Брешко-Брешковская Е. К. Ипполит Мышкин и Архангельский кружок. Б. м. 1904;
Elections to the Constituent Assembly began 95 years ago // On this day. 25 November 1917.