After returning to St. Petersburg, I temporarily settled in the apartment of my sister Anna Markovna. I was looking forward to meeting my fellow revolutionaries, eager to share my impressions, express my doubts about lavrism, my aspirations for more active work on the basis of the struggle against autocracy and bureaucracy, and tell about everything I had observed during my stay in Romania...
Here I must make a small digression from my story and introduce the reader to my connections in the revolutionary world before my trip to Romania. I deeply sympathized with the educational work among the peasants and propaganda among the workers. I was deeply impressed by Pyotr Alexeyev1 during the 50-year-old trial and the peasant who proudly defended the interests of workers at the Zaslavsky 2 trial . I was present at these two trials, and the faces of these extraordinary sons of the people never left my mind. I decided to devote all my energy and, if necessary, my life to the Workers ' movement. On this basis, I became close friends with some members of the Zemly I Volya organization, and, to my happiness, with the best of the organization's forces. Above, I talked about the strong influence on Russian youth, and on me in particular, had the political processes: 193, 50, Zaslavsky. Under the influence of the heroes of these trials, their actions and speeches, many of us had the idea to give up medicine and go to the people, to the working environment with the words of truth, to educate them, to engage in propaganda among them about political freedom and socialism. There were days when I was in a state of great excitement, when an inner voice told me that I was committing a crime by my indecision, that I should give up the idea of finishing higher education, thoughts about my family, about the suffering they were causing. You need to drop everything, like Sofya Bardina 3, the Lyubatovich sisters 4, and plunge into activities among the people. After a series of agonizing days and sleepless nights, I decided to finish my training.
...I don't remember when or at what point I met Alexander Mikhailov, but I think that in the winter of 1877, at a meeting held in the apartment of our student commune, in the famous Nikolaev house, on 7th Peskov Street. The meeting was held to discuss the new underground organ "Nachalo". This body was of a liberal-constitutional nature. The landholders did not approve of his direction. The meeting was stormy; the organ's editor defended it: "No socialism is possible without training the people, without introducing socialist ideas to the masses of the peasantry and urban proletariat. And how can these ideas be disseminated without freedom of speech, press, and assembly? First of all, these freedoms must be achieved, and then socialist propaganda will be possible. Otherwise, it's a chimera." This view was opposed by the landowners present at the meeting. Georgy Plekhanov was particularly vocal in his opposition to these views. His speech was strong, passionate, and polemical. She impressed me and my colleagues with her power of persuasion and passion. This is only said by people for whom the ideas they profess are their essence, their being, and for whom they give everything up to and including life...
As far as I remember, Alexander Mikhailov was also present at this meeting, but he did not speak... He recently returned, as far as I remember, from Saratov, where he went for the purpose of propaganda among sectarians. In a brief but extremely interesting biographical sketch about Alexander Dmitrievich, Plekhanov described the profound approach of this rare man to his duties as a revolutionary propagandist in the Soviet Union.
Ending. For the beginning, see Voprosy Istorii, 1970, No. 11.
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sectarian environment. Now, having returned to St. Petersburg for a while, he found the strike in full swing at the Novaya Paper Mill and decided to help the central organization of Zemlya I Volya, whose members led the strikers, wrote proclamations, formulated their aspirations and demands, and raised funds among the student youth and society. With Alexander Dmitrievich, we began to meet often. Through him, I passed on the funds I had collected among our students and among my acquaintances. Already illegal, he and his comrades needed a safe haven. I arranged for him, Morozov, and, as far as I remember, Oboleshev to stay with the Semenskys, who were very sympathetic to the strikers, collected funds for them, and hid their literature. When Alexander Dmitrievich found out about my return from Romania, he came to me with Oboleshev. It was the first time I'd seen the latter. It was a major force in the Land and Freedom organization. An organizer and conspirator of great power, he was the soul of the Zemlya I Volya society, just like Alexander Dmitrievich. His duties were to supply the members of the organization with funds and distribute the latter, supply passports to illegal figures, and communicate with Kletochnikov6, who provided irreplaceable services to the organization. "Do you know, Rosalia Markovna," Alexander Dmitrievich said to me, " whom I have brought you? Oboleshev himself!" This gave me a lot of trust from the organization.
I told my friend Alexander Dmitrievich and the celebrity he brought to me in detail about my stay in Romania, about the procedures that I personally observed and that my colleagues told me about. My story aroused great interest among my listeners, and I promised to write an article about what I had seen for Zemlya I Volya, but I did not have time to do this, and, of course, I did well not to do so, since from my correspondence it was not difficult for the third department to guess who wrote it, which would have turned out very quickly. soon.
Shortly after my arrival from Romania, while I was still looking for a room and staying with my sister, a young man came to me with a letter from my friend, the exiled worker Vasily Kirillov, 7 whom I had become intimately acquainted with in one of the workers ' propaganda circles. Vasily Kirillov worked behind the Neva Outpost at the Thornton cotton mill. I liked him for his serious, thoughtful appearance and interest in intellectual education. I invited him to my house, read newspapers and pamphlets with him, and carried him proclamations for the March strike at the Novaya Paper Mill across the Neva Zastava to the factory... When I returned to St. Petersburg from Romania, I learned from some workers I knew that Vasily had gone to his village and was exiled to the North, as I recall, in the Archangel province, for propaganda among the peasants. And suddenly, from the dearest Vasily, a message to "God", that is, Bograd. In this letter, Vasily recommended to me his exiled friend Mukhachev as an honest, efficient man who had great contacts among the factory and factory population of St. Petersburg; he wrote that he could be very useful to me for organizing work in this environment... I received my friend Vasily affectionately, but did not say anything about my plans, deciding to consult with familiar members of Zemlya I Volya. From his words, I concluded that educational and revolutionary work among the workers of the capital had been his business for a number of years, that he was familiar with the living conditions of the workers, knew their psyche and capabilities. A short time later, when I was settled in a new apartment with a philistine craftsman in Kovensky Lane, I invited Georgy Valentinovich and Alexander Dmitrievich Mikhailov to my house, and informed them of a letter I had received from my faithful friend Vasily, who recommended the sender of the letter as a talented and popular figure among the Petersburg workers, among whom he had connections. This was in the autumn of 1878, just at the height of the second strike at the Novaya Paper Mill and the strike movement that swept through a number of factories and factories - at the Novaya Paper Mill, at the Obvodny Canal, at the Koenig factory 8, etc. Work among the revolutionary youth was in full swing, connections were needed in higher educational institutions, in society, in factories and factories.
At a meeting with Georgy Valentinovich and Mikhailov, I suggested that we organize workers ' apartments in different quarters of St. Petersburg, in the factory and factory suburbs; for this purpose I have loyal people, loyal housewives. These apartments, I designed, would be occupied by workers who were already well-known for their revolutionary activities and who would attract new products.-
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cabbage soup. They will be taught to read and write, they will be taught, developed, and the ndni of political freedom and socialism will be spread among them. Mukhachev is familiar with prominent workers and will help attract them to safe houses. Housewives I mean capable, experienced revolutionaries.
It turned out that Mukhachev was a landowner, well-known; I liked my plan, and I got down to business. Without putting it off, I contacted Olimpiada Evgrafievna Kutuzova-Kafiero, with whom I became close friends and whom I appreciated as a person who was devoted to the revolutionary cause and had an invaluable ability to get close and speak to ordinary people in their own language. I also knew that she would not give up any work and would cook, clean the workers ' rooms, mend their linen - in short, she would be like a mother to them. For another apartment, I selected Olga Nikolaevna Prisetskaya 9, the sister of Sofya 10, a great friend of mine, who at that time was working with her husband , a doctor 11, who turned into a craftsman, somewhere, as far as I remember, among the Cossacks in the Kuban. There was a third landlady in mind. In short, there was no shortage of willing laborers.
A short time later, we had safe houses on the Vyborg side and on the Catherine Canal. O. N. Prisetskaya and Olimpiada Evgrafievna proved to be excellent housewives. The workers were particularly attached to Olimpiada Evgrafyevna, whose apartment was located on the Vyborg side. Here we had two workers who had worked in Maltsev's factory for as long as I remember. Both were very outstanding in their dedication to the cause of their brothers, bravery and desire for knowledge, for development. Shiryaev 12 came to this apartment , I came, read newspapers with the workers, talked about various political topics, brought them books. I talked to them about various forms of slavery of workers and peasants, about slavery in ancient times, about serfdom and wage labor, and about the history of social teachings. During the strikes at the Koenig, Schau, and Shapshal factories, Shiryaev and I brought proclamations that they carried to Maltsev's factory; the workers who lived in the apartment and the comrades they attracted organized a gathering among the comrades to help the strikers. One of the workers who lived in the apartment managed by O. E. Kutuzova-Kafiero was distinguished by a strong revolutionary temperament and intrepidity. We jokingly called him "Marat". For him, there was no greater pleasure than to hang out, almost in front of the police, proclamations on behalf of the striking comrades. He was a young, 20-year-old guy, with a nice, intelligent face, lively, broken. His companion, Olimpiada Evgrafyevna's old lodger, whom we called "poetic Andrey," was modest, quiet, fond of reading, and interested in science and literature. He was drawn to the countryside, where " there is a lot to do,"he said," among the ignorant peasants."
The safe house that Olga Prisetskaya was in charge of had a different, more central, business-like character. It was located on the Catherine Canal. Only the owner and her husband, Bronislaw Bairoszewski, lived in it. Some of the members of the Land and Freedom Society gathered there for meetings: Georgy Valentinovich, Alexander Mikhailov, Shiryaev and others. Here absolutely loyal members from workers ' circles were admitted; here proclamations were discussed and written; here workers came to collect funds in favor of the strikers; various practical tasks were solved on questions of agitation in factories and factories. This apartment was particularly busy during the height of the strike at the Koenig Factory, and later at the New Paper Mill on Obvodny and at the Schau Factory.
I remember a secret meeting in the apartment, which was attended by representatives of workers from all these institutions. Georgy Valentinovich talked to the workers: he asked them about their demands and formulated them. The mood of the workers was energetic and combative. One of the workers at the Schau factory was even asked to stage a small act of terrorism, like a small fire, to frighten the manufacturer and make him more compliant. But we all dissuaded the "boisterous little head" of the worker from doing this. I remember that the demands of the workers of the Paper Mill on the Obvodny Canal and the Schau factory, which were given in Georgy Valentinovich's article "The Russian Worker in the Revolutionary Movement," were formulated by Georgy Valentinovich in our safe house.
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In order not to endanger the workers ' apartments, I resorted, on the advice of the "janitor" (a friendly nickname for Alexander Dmitrievich Mikhailov), to "changing clothes": I put on a modest dress and a similar coat, and on my head a handkerchief, which I tied under the chin, as the workers did. The changing took place in the communal apartment of a fellow student, Stroganova, who also belonged to the revolutionary circles. She was a good-looking, energetic woman who was very sympathetic to the awakening of the revolutionary movement among the workers and helped it in every possible way. Her brother, Dr. Stroganov, was famous in St. Petersburg society for his scientific and medical achievements. He did not take a direct part in the revolutionary movement, but was ready to render any service. Having received a place, thanks to his medical merits, as a court doctor in Peterhof, he treated the royal retinue, ladies-in-waiting. Later, at the beginning of 1880, when Georgy Valentinovich was forced to emigrate, and I was still not fully recovered from the birth of my first child, I had to leave the safe house and get a job in some safe place for full recovery of health, before I came to the surface, after a short stay with the writer Zlatovratsky, I got a job with the writer Dr. Stroganov's apartment in Peterhof...
My disguises terrified my friend and adviser Osip Vasilyevich Antekman 14 . "God knows what it is! Disfigured myself!" But this disguise, it turned out, was very useful to me in the sense of conspiracy. I noticed the surveillance of myself, and through Kletochnikov I heard complaints from the fiscal officers: "This Bograd, you can't keep track of her in any way, you follow her, she goes to a Medical school or some house nearby, you stand and wait for her to come out! And she disappears, as if she has fallen through the ground!" And the box just opened. When I went to a meeting or to a work apartment, I deliberately entered the Medical School, visited the sick, and from there went by another route to the park adjacent to the Nikolaev Hospital, and through the park went to where I needed to go on business. And the fiscal naively waited for me at the main entrance, or if I went to Stroganova's, I went out in such disguise that the stupid and inexperienced fiscal did not recognize me. The king's servant was bad. Inexperienced...
In March 1879, before Solovyov's attempt on Alexander II's life, Georgy Valentinovich and I left St. Petersburg at the request of the Zemlya I Volya organization, mainly at the insistence of Kletochnikov. I went to my parents ' house in Kherson, and Georgy Valentinovich went to Rostov-on-Don. We broke up with him in Kharkiv. My absence from St. Petersburg lasted quite a long time. I returned in the fall, after the Voronezh Congress 16 .
Georgy Valentinovich and I felt that we were in danger of separation. So we started meeting him more often. I was afraid for him, and he was afraid for me. I had more reason to think so: he was badly wanted by the police, and he owed his safety to his extraordinary resourcefulness. More than once he was in the hands of the police: during the first strike at the Novaya Paper Mill, in Rostov-on-Don, when he went to propagandize among the Cossacks, during the first crossing of the border after the Kazan demonstration 17 . But his resourcefulness saved him.
During my stay in the apartment on Lamppost Lane, Georgy Valentinovich came to see me often. We read together the first volume of Marx's Das Kapital, which appeared in German Lopatin's translation, and the first leaflet published by the Northern Workers ' Union, which appeared in January 1879. He told me about Khalturin, his student and friend, about the talent, intelligence and dedication to the idea of this wonderful man... We met Georgy Valentinovich almost daily, read and talked; we became great friends. He knew a lot, read a lot, but the wandering life, the lack of a permanent place of residence, the need to frequently change his place of residence, move from one patron to another for fear of compromising them - all this life was incompatible with working on scientific works to supplement knowledge. And the need for acquiring knowledge from Georgy Valentinovich was already great at that time. "Eh! If only he could get to a free country for a few months, have a library at hand, meet big people, " he sometimes blurted out... But it was only a dream come true. Agitation and propaganda among the workers, writing articles for an underground newspaper, propaganda among the
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young people demanded his constant presence in their homeland, but mainly in the center of the movement, in the capital. It was a tumultuous time, full of political anxiety. Among the landholders, a tendency to single combat with the merciless despotism of the government began to be noticed more and more. Socialist propaganda and organization among the people, according to the conviction of prominent members of the organization, such as Mikhailov, Morozov, and Kravchinsky, moved slowly. We must put an end to autocracy. It is impossible to wait until a strong popular movement develops among the people, capable of overthrowing the autocracy. Arrests and searches paralyze the movement. I remember one meeting of our peripheral circle "Land and Freedom". This meeting was held in the apartment of a young student of the revolutionary Guterman, whom Georgy Valentinovich attracted to the organization "Land and Freedom". He was a resident of Rostov-on-Don, where his family lived, very nice, devoted to advanced ideas, ready to suffer for them. Guterman's father and older brother were exiled to Siberia for their closeness to the revolutionaries. Alexander Mikhailov was also present at this meeting. This was in 1879, a few months before Solovyov's attempt on the life of Alexander II. The question was about the distribution of funds. Mikhailov was inclined to spend the largest amount on terrorist acts for the purpose of self-defense and a smaller amount on settling among the people. Georgy Valentinovich was very much struck by this change in Mikhailov, and complained bitterly to me at the end of the meeting about the change that had taken place in his friend. Alexander Mikhailov was only inclined to a new revolutionary trend, which a few months later , during the Voronezh and Lipetsk Congresses of 18, took over, and the best, most powerful revolutionary organization, Zemlya I Volya, which had branches throughout broad Mother Russia, collapsed. But still, the relations between Georgy Valentinovich and Alexander Dmitrievich were very friendly. Plekhanov hoped that the convinced and talented narodnik who had done so much for agitation among the people, his friend, would remain true to his narodnik ideas and not deviate from the path that, in our opinion, was the only radical one that corresponded to our historical traditions. Our friend's fascination with "fact propaganda" is temporary, we hoped.
This lasted until the appearance of Solovyov in St. Petersburg. Riots and strikes in factories and factories, student unrest in Kharkiv and Kiev led to arrests, exile, hunger strikes, and riots among political prisoners. These events provoked protests even in a liberal society. And among the revolutionary youth, the decision to devote all its forces to the struggle against the government and its administration was strengthened. Thus, the assassination of Mezentsev was followed on February 9, 1879, by the assassination of the Kharkiv governor Prince Kropotkin, 20 followed by an attempt on the life of Mezentsev's deputy, General Drenteln, 21 who was merciless in the persecution of the revolutionary youth. There was no end to the arrests. In prisons, prisoners were driven to suicide. All this heavy atmosphere reinforced the terrorist trend in the landowners ' environment. Successful assassinations brought cheerfulness and confidence to the souls of those members who were already inclined to single combat between the revolutionaries and the autocracy. This mood reached its climax when in March 1879 the 30-year-old A. Solovyov, a parish clerk at one of the village revolutionary settlements in the Saratov province, appeared. He came to St. Petersburg with the intention of giving up his life to avenge his brothers: to kill the tsar.
After informing some major members of the Zemlya I Volya organization of this intention, he waited for a decision. But at the meeting where this issue was resolved and attended by A. Mikhailov and Georgy Valentinovich, opinions were divided. Georgy Valentinovich was opposed to this act, because he clearly foresaw that this attempt would deal a fatal blow to the narodnik movement, increase the white terror, draw the entire revolutionary movement along the path of terrorism, and as a result, as he said, the autocracy would remain intact. Only to the name of Alexander, three sticks will be added instead of two. He spoke out strongly against the assassination attempt. Almost every day during the meetings, he spoke to me with great chagrin about the slippery path that the Earth and Freedom organization is heading down.
At this time, Georgy Valentinovich was strongly wanted. He was credited with taking an active part in all terrorist acts, and was forced to change his appearance every day: first shaved, then with a beard, then with a mustache, then without a mustache. Description-
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the descriptions of his appearance from the police reports were the most fantastic. Finally, in order to track down the "speaker" of the former Kazan demonstration, which, the police thought, "caused all the trouble," they resorted to the following means: an unknown person breaks into the room of a student Osmolovsky, who lived in the apartment of the aforementioned Stroganova, pulls out a revolver and shouts " where is Plekhanov?" she pounces on him, threatening to shoot him. Fortunately, the student did not know either Plekhanov or his whereabouts and sincerely replied that he did not know. The fiscal did not leave with a salty slurp. The calculation to take the student by fear failed. About five days before April 2, our friend Nikander Moshchenko 22 , a member of the Zemlya I Volya organization, came to me at Sirotinina's apartment on behalf of Kletochnikov with an urgent demand that the latter leave St. Petersburg as soon as possible in view of the upcoming Solovyov act. I have my apartment in mind, and the police will undoubtedly come to me. A. Mikhailov came to us with the same insistent demand on behalf of Kletochnikov.
Georgy Valentinovich was very reluctant to leave St. Petersburg, but I insisted, and in 2 or 3 days we moved to Kharkiv, I to my relatives, and Georgy Valentinovich to Rostov-on-Don, to work ... 23 .
I stayed about a month with my family. On my way back to St. Petersburg, I stopped in Rostov-on-Don for a few days to see Georgy Valentinovich and consult with him about our future behavior and actions. In Rostov, Georgy Valentinovich did a lot of work among the local intelligentsia, among the Don Cossacks and among the port workers. I stopped at the house of a revolutionary hostess, who, in addition to Georgy Valentinovich, sheltered several other members of the local circle of landowners. The hostess was quite a person of her own, took great care of her guests, sympathized with their revolutionary activities, allowed meetings in her house, and hid her literature. Georgy Valentinovich treated her with great confidence. Later, he told me about his next adventure. A policeman prowling in the ranks of the port workers noticed him among them, approached Georgy Valentinovich with a request who he was, why he was here, what he was talking about with the port workers. Georgy Valentinovich was dressed and looked like a philistine. He was wearing a decent suit and cap. Why is he here, among the workers? Georgy Valentinovich replied to the policeman that he had come on a business trip. "Where are you staying?" "Over there." The passport was in order. "Take me to your apartment," the policeman demanded. "Okay, let's go." Georgy Valentinovich took him to his room. The landlady answers the knock and opens the door. Georgy Valentinovich enters, and a policeman is preparing to enter after him. Georgy Valentinovich shouted: "Where are you going? You stay here..." Georgy Valentinovich's voice was so commanding that the tsar's sbir 24 was taken aback and remained on the stairs. Georgy Valentinovich told the landlady to clean up immediately if she had anything forbidden, but when the landlady reassured him on this point, he let in a curious representative of the authorities. He went in, looked, didn't touch anything, and left. That was the end of it... During my brief stay in Rostov-on-Don, Georgy Valentinovich told me some curious cases from his meetings among the sponsored population of Rostov. One of the local sponsored merchants supported the revolutionaries with funds for propaganda and support of illegal ones. Georgy Valentinovich met with him, kept him informed of revolutionary events and needs. When asked whether the revolutionaries needed material resources, Georgy Valentinovich said that they did, and he would do a great service to the cause if he could give a certain amount of money to the local circle... The merchant took out the requested amount from the cash register, but immediately added:: "There must be a revolution coming soon," our comrades were alarmed. Georgy Valentinovich told me about this case with great humor.
After spending a few days in Rostov-on-Don, I moved on to St. Petersburg. Georgy Valentinovich accompanied me to the train station. In his middle-class garb, with a cap on his head, he looked like a young merchant of average prosperity. This outfit changed his appearance so much that it made him unrecognizable. I said goodbye to him with great anxiety in my heart. His life was constantly in danger, despite his courage, resourcefulness, and cheerful spirit.
In St. Petersburg, on the recommendation of one of my friends, I settled down with a loyal, revolutionary-minded hostess, and began my medical studies, since in the fall, at the end of August, I was going to have a practical exam in anatomy with a doctor.-
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fessora Laidzert. But my quiet studies did not last long. A few weeks after my arrival, some suspicious people came to my hostess, presented her with several photographic cards, and asked if she recognized any of my visitors among the people on the cards. The hostess said no. Soon Alexander Kvyatkovsky came to me and told me ... that the members of the central organization were very afraid for the safety of Georgy Valentinovich...
Filled with anxiety for the fate of Georgy Valentinovich, I hurried to finish the practical exam in anatomy and, as soon as I was free, moved to Kiev, where Teofilia Vasilyevna Pollyak, who had returned from Switzerland, was waiting for me. In Kiev, I decided to wait for news from Georgy Valentinovich. From friends of A. D. Mikhailov and others. I soon received information that Georgy Valentinovich was safe, and soon received a few words from him personally; I also learned that a congress of landowners was going to Voronezh at the end of June, and I decided to meet Georgy Valentinovich in Kiev after the congress was over...
Georgy Valentinovich came to see me in Kiev at the beginning of July. He was physically tired, but mentally alert, despite the fact that he had experienced a great internal drama. "I am now almost alone, my friends and like-minded people did not support me, but I could not go against the interests of the people, put an end to the whole past. Narodnik socialism has given way to liberalism, I have broken with the organization and am left alone, but I do not lose hope that many of those who have betrayed our ideals will come to their senses and that I will find support among the Narodnik revolutionaries."
He attributed the success of the terrorists at the Voronezh Congress in part to the fact that many of the "villagers" - that is, members of the zamleholt organization who were in favor of continuing their work in the village-had left before the Lipetsk Congress was over. Those who remained hesitated, although they were not on the side of the terrorists. He himself was adamant, seeing the weakness and hesitation of his comrades. The same inflexibility that Georgy Valentinovich showed on the narodnik path, Alexander Mikhailov showed in supporting Zhelyabov, 25 and the terrorist method of action for the rapid overthrow of the autocracy. Georgy Valentinovich's brave, unyielding behavior caused delight among many participants of the congress, although they themselves did not dare to remain outside the organization. Strong, inflexible, as Mikhail Rodionovich Popovich and Osip Aptekman later told me, was only Georgy Valentinovich. They did not see the harm that terror would do to our revolutionary narodism.
"With Zhelyabov," Georgy Valentinovich told me, " we had a strong argument, a healthy skirmish. He is not a socialist, but a socialist, a bourgeois revolutionary. We had a great fight, and at the end of the argument he said: "You know, Georgy Valentinovich, I am passionate, irreconcilable, but you are even more irreconcilable, more passionate than I am, there is a Tartar in you." Georgy Valentinovich gave me this episode, laughing. He found Zhelyabov's remark witty. In general, Georgy Valentinovich spoke to me about Zhelyabov with great sympathy, as a talented and deeply ideological rival.
Soon Alexander Mikhailov also came to see me in Kiev. In his article " The Peripheral Circle of Zemlya I Volya "("Emancipation of Labor Group. Collection 4. Moscow, 1926) I gave a brief account of this meeting, of the stormy, passionate encounter that had taken place before my eyes between Georgy Valentinovich and Alexander Dmitrievich, these two recently bosom friends, the Ajax brothers, as I called them, of my efforts to put an end to this difficult scene between two warring brothers, and of my meeting with Alexander Dmitrievich the day after this heavy scene in some park. The date and our conversation on the bench didn't last long... There was a strong, deep conviction in his words. My friend's excitement was also communicated to me. I didn't believe in the path he had chosen, but something inside me was wavering. I didn't mind and listened to him in silence. "Why are you silent, Rosalia Markovna, your silence is more difficult than an objection," my friend said. I felt with all the strength of my soul that I should stop further conversation... At parting, I told my friend that I was going with Plekhanov along the old road. Alexander Dmitrievich and I never met again. But his image is etched in my soul forever. Georgy Valentinovich and I often talked about him, exchanging memories of various episodes of our meetings and life together...
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Our life in Kiev and its wonderful surroundings was one of the best moments in our personal life. Despite the agitation we experienced in connection with the decision of the Voronezh Congress, despite the loneliness in which Georgy Valentinovich found himself, we were both full of faith in the future of our revolutionary movement, full of faith that the historical truth was on our side and that we were facing a life full of hope, even though we had a great struggle ahead of us. Georgy Valentinovich was cheerful and confident in his rightness. I sympathized with him from the bottom of my heart, appreciated him more than ever for his courage and steadfastness of convictions, and was ready to go with him to the end of the world...
Mikhail Rodionovich Popov, who at that time completely shared Georgy Valentinovich's views on the split of "Land and Freedom", came to our apartment, and Ivan Nikolaevich Prisetsky also came .27 My husband and I stayed here until mid-August. Then Georgy Valentinovich moved to St. Petersburg, where he was to meet with L. G. Deitch and V. I. Zasulich...
After Georgy Valentinovich left, I stayed in Kiev with my friend Teofilia Vasilyevna because of my health condition, firmly deciding to move to St. Petersburg after a while... I returned to St. Petersburg illegally, under a false name, in mid-September. On arrival, I stopped at a hotel in Riga and immediately sent word to my friend, the student A. O. Dukat, to come to me, which my dear Adolf Osipovich immediately did. I asked him to find Georgy Valentinovich, as we had agreed. We're through A [Dolph] Osipovich conducted our correspondence. Georgy Valentinovich came to me in good health and spirits that very evening. He was delighted with his new friends L. G. Deitch and V. I. Zasulich, especially the latter. He gave me details about the new organization "Black Redistribution", that it was decided to publish an organ of the same name. He told me about his conversation with Perovskaya 28, who still remained a narodnike and joined the terrorists only to eliminate Alexander II, who has many crimes against the Russian people and the revolutionary party: he deserved to be executed! After the murder of the latter, the work of the people will be more productive, tsarism will fall, and the government will be forced to give a constitution. Georgy Valentinovich did not believe in this, tsarism would not yield to terror, but only to the people's revolutionary movement. The liberation of the people must be the work of the people themselves. We had a long conversation that evening...
The next morning, the sweetest Yevgenia Rubenchik, our great personal friend, came to see me. She valued Georgy Valentinovich very much and treated me with love and respect. During the night, I thought over the question of our immediate arrangement and finally became convinced that it was better for Georgy Valentinovich's safety to settle down together, as a common household. Yevgenia Rubenchik completely approved of my argument and took it upon herself to inform the organization that we should have a common passport, a family one, fabricated. The incomparable Oboleshev, a specialist of the Zemlya I Volya organization, came to the rescue, and by evening the passport in the name of noblemen Semashko was ready. The surname was chosen by Georgy Valentinovich, guided by a completely correct consideration. Semashko..., a close relative of Georgy Valentinovich, lived in the Tambov province-a well-known person 29 . In the case of a police certificate, whether there are Semashko nobles, the answer will be yes. This will allow us to live for a certain period of time without being persecuted. We will not use this passport for a long time. This consideration proved to be correct, as the future has shown. As soon as the passport was in our hands, and it was forged in a few hours, Georgy Valentinovich and I stopped at some hotel, I don't remember the name, and presented our passport for application and registration to the local police station. After handing my passport to the hotel owner for presentation, I asked the hotel owner to arrange for its registration as soon as possible, since I need my passport to submit to the bank to receive the money sent to us. That was in the morning. The owner promised to arrange everything as best as possible. While this necessary formality was being performed, Georgy Valentinovich and I left the hotel to do some shopping. We returned about two hours later. Georgy Valentinovich was accompanied by several comrades in the hope of repulsing him in the event of his arrest.
As I approached the hotel, I insisted that Georgy Valentinovich stay on the street, and I went in alone and asked the hotel keeper if our passport was ready,
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Since I'm in a hurry to get to the bank, I want to be there before it closes. I still remember feeling a little nervous: it was a big risk with a hastily fabricated passport... What if it doesn't pass the test? But joy: "Is the passport ready?" The passport is in my hands. With joy, I went out to my comrades and Georgy Valentinovich, who were waiting for me in excitement, and informed them of my good fortune. We lived quietly for a couple of days, until we found an apartment in Grafsky Lane, at number 6, with some two German women from Riga. Without putting things off, we moved in and settled in. We lived in Grafsky Lane, now Proletarsky Lane, until mid-January 1880 ... when Georgy Valentinovich, much wanted by the St. Petersburg police, was forced to leave his homeland and emigrate.
notes
1 Pyotr Alekseyevich Alekseev (1849-1891), one of the first revolutionary workers, delivered a speech at the" Trial of 50 " (February-March 1877).- a political process where workers were active for the first time. P. Alekseev's speech was illegally printed and had a great influence on the revolutionary movement in Russia. He was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor, and after serving it, he lived in exile in Yakutia, where he was killed (see S. S. Shusterman. Peter Alekseev in Yakut exile. Voprosy Istorii, 1963, No. 1).
2 We are talking about the May 1879 trial of the leaders of the first workers 'organization in Russia, the South Russian Workers' Union, which was headed by E. Zaslavsky. R. M. Plekhanov evidently calls Fyodor Ivanovich Kravchenko (born about 1852, date of death unknown to us), who looks like a native of the peasant environment. He worked as a locksmith in railway workshops in Odessa, was one of the organizers of the "South Russian Union of Workers". At the end of 1875 he was arrested, and in 1877 he was sentenced to hard labor for 5 years.
3 Sofia Illarionovna Bardina (1853-1883) - a revolutionary narodnitsa, in the early 70s a lavristka, worked in Switzerland as a typesetter in the printing house of the illegal magazine "Vperyod". In 1874, she returned to Russia and conducted revolutionary propaganda in the factories of Moscow. In 1875, she was arrested and tried in 1877 in the "Trial of 50", where she made a speech, the text of which was distributed by revolutionaries. The court sentenced her to hard labor, commuted to exile in Siberia, from where she fled abroad in 1880. She committed suicide in Geneva.
4 Lyubatovich sisters Vera Spiridonovna (1855-1907) and Olga Spiridonovna ( dates of life unknown to us) - daughters of a factory owner, studied abroad, where they joined the revolutionary movement. Participated in the creation of "Land and Freedom". According to the" Trial of 50", the following persons were convicted: V. S. Lyubatovich-to exile in Siberia, and O. S. Lyubatovich - to 9 years of hard labor.
5 Alexey Dmitrievich Oboleshev (1854-1881) - revolutionary narodnik. He was a student at Moscow University and participated in the liberation of P. A. Kropotkin. One of the organizers of "Land and Freedom", he maintained contacts with the printing house, was in charge of the passport office, correspondence with the province. In October 1878, he was arrested and sentenced to hard labor for 20 years. He died of tuberculosis in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Oboleshev could not prepare a passport for the Plekhanovs at the end of 1879, as he was already in prison at that time.
6 Nikolai Vasilyevich Kletochnikov (1847-1883), a revolutionary narodnik, served in the Third division on the instructions of Zemlya I Volya and later the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya, informing the revolutionaries of upcoming searches and arrests. In 1881, he was arrested and sentenced to hard labor for life. He died in the Peter and Paul Fortress as a result of a hunger strike.
7 Vasily Kirillov (born about 1856, date of death unknown) - a native of the peasants, a worker at the Thornton factory in St. Petersburg, participated in revolutionary circles. In September 1878, he was arrested and sent under police supervision.
8 On November 8, 1878, 2 thousand workers of the Novaya Paper Mill factory did not go to work. On November 29, 200 workers went on strike at Koenig's paper-spinning and cotton-wool factory in St. Petersburg. They protested against the excessive exploitation of teenagers, who made up more than half of the company's workers. Plekhanov published notes on these strikes in the illegal magazine Zemlya i Volya (see G. V. Plekhanov, Soch. Vol. 1, Moscow-Ptgr. 1923, pp. 36-42).
9 Prisetskaya Olga Nikolaevna (born in the 1850s, died after 1924) - the daughter of a rich Ukrainian landowner, joined the narodnik movement.
10 Prisetskaya-Bogomolets Sofya Nikolaevna (1856-1892) - an active figure in the narodnik movement. In 1878, together with her husband, she conducted propaganda among the Cossacks of the Kuban region. In 1880-1881 , she was a member of one of the workers ' unions in Kiev. In 1881, she was arrested and sentenced to hard labor for 10 years. On the way to Siberia, she tried to escape, for which she received another 5 years of hard labor. Repeatedly participated in missile defense-
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during tests and hunger strikes against police brutality, Raya was subjected to heavy punishments many times. She died of tuberculosis in a Kary prison.
11 Bogomolets Alexander Mikhailovich (1850, died after 1933) - narodnik, doctor by training. He conducted revolutionary propaganda among the Cossacks of the Kuban region. In 1880, he went abroad, where he returned after the arrest of his wife. He was arrested in 1882 and sent to Western Siberia for 3 years. Then he practiced medicine in different cities under the supervision of the police.
12 Stepan Grigoryevich Shiryaev (1856-1881) - a revolutionary narodnik, the son of a serf, since 1876 led propaganda among the workers of Saratov. In 1878, in St. Petersburg, he became close to the landowners. He was a member of the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya. In 1879, he was sentenced to indefinite hard labor for participating in the assassination attempt on Alexander II on November 19, 1879.
13 A strike at the Shapshal brothers ' tobacco factory took place in September 1878 and ended in a victory for female workers who protested against lower prices. On January 15, 1879, a strike began at the New Paper-Spinning and Weaving Factory on the Obvodny Canal in St. Petersburg. 700 workers demanded higher prices, shorter working hours, lower fines and protested against the dismissal of 44 comrades. The next day, they were joined by 300 workers from the Shau weaving factory. Workers at the Cheshire and Maltsev factories in St. Petersburg came out in support of their comrades. In addition, an unsuccessful attempt was made to organize a solidarity strike at the Koenig and Co. factory in the village of Volynkina (a suburb of St. Petersburg). These strikes were organized by the Populist revolutionaries, the worker P. A. Moiseenko (Pyotr Anisimov), G. V. Plekhanov, the medical student N. V. Schmemann, and others.
14 Aptekman Osip Vasilyevich (1849-1926) - a prominent populist, in 1874-1875. led propaganda in the Pskov and Penza provinces, after the formation of "Land and Freedom" - in the Saratov and Tambov provinces, in St. Petersburg. One of the founders of the "Black Redistribution". In 1880, he was arrested and exiled to Yakutia for 5 years, in the 90s he became close to the Social Democrats, participated in the 1905 revolution. Author of memoirs and articles on the history of revolutionary narodism.
15 Solovyov Alexander Konstantinovich (1846-1879) - revolutionary narodnik, joined the "Land and Freedom", worked as a teacher. He acquired the profession of a blacksmith in order to be among the peasants, and conducted revolutionary propaganda in several provinces. Seeing the low success of this activity, I decided to make an attempt on Alexander II. On April 2, 1879, without the permission of the leadership of Zemlya I Volya, he shot at the tsar. He was sentenced to death and hanged on May 28, 1879.
16 At the Voronezh Congress of Land and Freedom (second half of July 1879), the question of the future direction of the organization's activities was discussed. A.D. Mikhailov, A. I. Zhelyabov, V. N. Figner and others spoke in favor of individual terror as a method of political struggle. Plekhanov was in favour of revolutionary propaganda among the peasants and workers. Having met with no support, he left the congress. In August, the organization split into Narodnaya Volya and Black Redistribution.
17 In the spring of 1877, Plekhanov went abroad illegally. He visited Berlin and Paris, met communists, as well as ideologists of the revolutionary populism P. L. Lavrov and P. N. Tkachev, and got acquainted with the working-class movement of Western Europe. At the end of July, he returned to Russia.
18 Part of the members of Zemlya I Volya secretly gathered at the Lipetsk Congress (June 1879). They considered the political struggle against the autocracy with the help of terror to be the main activity of revolutionaries. The participants of the congress decided to push for the adoption of their program at the upcoming congress of landowners in Voronezh. At the congress, Alexander II was sentenced to death. After the split of Zemlya I Volya occurred at the Voronezh Congress, the participants of the Lipetsk Congress organized Narodnaya Volya.
19 Mezentsev N. V. (1827-1878) - Chief of gendarmes and head of the III department. He was killed on August 4, 1878 by S. M. Kravchinsky (Stepnyak) in response to the execution of narodnik I. M. Kovalsky.
20 Kropotkin D. N. (1836-1879) - Kharkiv governor. He was killed by Narodnaya Volya member G. D. Goldenberg for bullying political prisoners in Kharkiv and Novo-Borisoglebsk prisons.
21 Drenteln A. R. (1820-1888) - chief of gendarmes. On March 13, 1879, according to the decision of the center for "Land and Freedom", an unsuccessful attempt was made on him.
22 Moshchenko Nikander Platonovich (born 1849, died after 1895) - an active member of narodnik circles in the south of Russia, repeatedly arrested by the police. In July 1879, he lived in Tambov province and participated in the Voronezh Congress of "Land and Freedom". Judging by the memoirs of R. M. Plekhanova, in March 1879 he was illegally in St. Petersburg. In 1881, he was exiled to Siberia for 5 years.
23 Plekhanov went to Rostov-on-Don in the summer of 1879 to conduct revolutionary propaganda there among the Don Cossacks, who were worried about the introduction of zemstvo organs. Having got acquainted with the situation, Plekhanov wrote a proclamation "To the Glorious Cossack army of the Don, Ural, Kuban, Tersk, etc. "(see "G. V. Plekhanov's Literary Heritage", Collection 1, Moscow, 1934, pp. 390-391), prizes-
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vaya Cossacks do not go to military service if the government does not comply with their demands for the abolition of zemstvos. In the autumn of 1879. Plekhanov went to Petersburg to publish this proclamation.
24 In Italy, armed judicial and police officers were called Sbirs.
25 Andrey Ivanovich Zhelyabov (1851-1881) - one of the founders and ideologists of Narodnaya Volya . In the 70s, he took an active part in the revolutionary movement, conducted propaganda among the workers and intellectuals of Odessa, Kiev, and St. Petersburg, and was sued in the "193 Process". He actively defended the need for the use of terror, was the author of the program documents of Narodnaya Volya, and led all its organizations. Zhelyabov participated in the preparation of the assassination attempt on the tsar on March 1, 1881. He was executed on April 3, 1881.
26 Mikhail Rodionovich Popov (1851-1909) - populist, one of the founders of Zemlya I Volya, together with Plekhanov led propaganda among the workers of St. Petersburg. In 1879, he joined the "Black Redistribution", but soon passed to the Narodnaya Volya. In 1880, he was arrested and sentenced to indefinite hard labor, which he served until 1905.
27 Prisetsky Ivan Nikolaevich (born in the 1850s, died around 1915) - joined the landowners in the 70s, was a member of the Kiev circle of Narodnaya Volya. In 1881 he went to Switzerland, then to Serbia. After returning to Russia in 1883, he was arrested and sent to administrative exile in Eastern Siberia. Later he was a deputy of the State Duma.
28 Sofya Lvovna Perovskaya (1853-1881) - an outstanding narodnitsa-revolutsnonerka, was born into an aristocratic family, and from the age of 16 took an active part in the revolutionary movement. In 1870, she broke up with her family, went "to the people", kept safe houses, and participated in an unsuccessful attempt to free I. N. Myshkin from prison. In 1878, she escaped from administrative exile and went into an illegal position. Organizer and member of the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya, she conducted propaganda among students, military personnel, and workers. Perovskaya participated in the organization of three attempts on the life of Alexander II, for which she was sentenced to be hanged. Executed on April 3, 1881.
29 G. V. Plekhanov's paternal sister, Maria Valentinovna, was married to Alexander Severinovich Semashko. A. S. and M. V. Semashko are the parents of the famous Soviet figure, People's Commissar of Health Nikolai Alexandrovich Semashko.
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