Catherine
Breshkovskaya, the daughter of a prosperous landowner who owned serfs,
was born in Russia in 1844.
Her strong
religious beliefs led her to question the morality of serfdom. After
marriage she carried out legal, educational and social work for the
peasantry in the 1860s.
In 1871
Breshkovskaya she left her husband and with a couple of friends established
a socialist commune in Kiev. Influenced by the writings of Peter
Lavrov and Pavel Axelrod, she joined
the 'To The People' movement in 1874.
Breshkovskaya
was arrested by the authorities and in January, 1878, she was sentenced
to twenty years hard labour in Siberia.
She became a well-known international figure when she was interviewed
by the American journalist, George Kennan for his book Siberia
and the Exile System.
In 1896
Breshkovskaya was allowed to return home and she soon became involved
in politics. In 1901 she joined with Victor
Chernov, Gregory Gershuni, Nikolai
Avksentiev, Alexander Kerensky and
Evno Azef, to form the Socialist
Revolutionary Party
and spent much of her time touring the world making speeches and raising
money for the party.
Breshkovskaya
was arrested in 1907 and was sentenced to be exiled to Siberia for
life. She was only released after the fall of the overthrow of Nicholas
II. On her return to Petrograd she became a strong supporter of
Alexander Kerensky and the Provisional
Government.
Breshkovskaya
disapproved of the Bolsheviks and
after the October Revolution she left
Russia and went to live in Czechoslovakia. Catherine Breshkovskaya
founded Russian-language schools in Ruthenia before retiring to Khvaly,
where she died in 1934.
(1)
Catherine Breshkovska, Memoirs (1917)
Soon we
moved to Smela. This enormous country town, which already contained
one sugar refinery and six factories, was spread over a wide area.
The house of the landlord, with its garden, park, and lake, surrounded
by a sea of trees, seemed to draw away from the noisy, dirty streets,
which teemed with factory people. The large market place swarmed with
traders. The police and fire stations were at the market place. At
the end of the place was a pond, its muddy water surrounded by very
steep banks. Earthen huts were dug out of these banks, and the shores
of the lake were thus lined with habitations resembling dens for animals.
In them the workers who came from other places lived-former dvorovye,
who had no land, who had come from northern governments. They lived
in these huts with their large families; here they were born and here
they died.
In Smela
we soon found a corner to live in. No one in the town occupied a whole
house. Small rooms were rented, usually without tables or seats. The
father of the owner of our hut, an old fighter for the welfare of
this community, offered us his own room, a dark den, and himself moved
into the passage, where he slept on planks. This old man helped me
a good deal in understanding the life of the factory population. They
had been brought to Smela, when serfdom still existed, from one of
the central governments, to work in the factories, having abandoned
their land and their houses. With their liberation they had got new
small patches of land, but only large enough to build their houses
on, and were still obliged to work in the factories, receiving a ration
of bread as wages. I do not remember further details, but I know that
the factory population lived in constant fear of losing their work
at the whim of managers and directors. Those with large families had
an especially hard time. Our old man was always weak from hunger.
His son had his own family to care for; his daughter-in law was unkind;
and the old man, who had been twice flogged and sent to Siberia for
defending the common interests, was at the end of his days almost
a beggar. An old pink shirt, a jacket, and an old peasant coat were
his only clothes. He also had a wooden basin and several wooden spoons,
which he kindly put at our disposal.
(2)
Catherine Breshkovska, Memoirs
(1917)
We directed
our steps toward Podolia, but I remember only a little of the details
of the journey. In one of the villages I gave away my last illegal
leaflet and then decided to write an appeal to the peasants myself.
Stephanovich made three copies of it. I did this because when I spoke
to the peasants they always said, "If you would write down these
words and spread them everywhere, they would be of real use, because
the people would know then that they were not invented."
In those terribly ignorant times when the only written papers in the
villages were the orders issued by the authorities, their faith in
a written word was great, all the more so since there was no one in
the villages who could write even moderately well.
(3)
Catherine Breshkovska, Memoirs
(1917)
Evening
was drawing near but the sun had not yet set. I, thinking only of
Jacob, was astonished when the chief commissar of the district was
announced. It developed that he had been informed of the event by
a messenger and had come from the district town of Bratzlav. This
stout gentleman entered the hut demanding, "Where is she?"
I was still sitting on the trunk eating apples.
"Take
her to prison under strong guard. Search her first."
Several
women were summoned, and in the closet which I had planned to occupy
they, who were full of sympathy and curiosity, timidly searched my
shabby, almost beggarly clothes, examined my two rubles pityingly
and put them carefully back into my pocket.
An escort
was waiting for me in the yard-twelve peasants armed with clubs. They
put me in a cart and took me to Tulchin. While wandering about the
market I had often wondered about a curiously shaped building. A high
wall of planks, pointed at the top, hid this building from sight,
only its red tiled roof showing. In my innocence I used to wonder
what strange sort of man would build himself such a horrid habitation.
On arriving
in Tulchin my cart drove up to this strange building. The wide gates
were opened. As we rolled into a bare, dreary yard, a large, thin
pig walked slowly about us, grunting plain lively. It had been arrested
for trespassing, and since its owner had not appeared it had been
starving for a whole week in the prison yard.
The enormous,
barn-like building was divided into four big wards. Scores of prisoners
could be placed in each of them. At that time they were empty. I was
taken into one of them. I had my sack with me, but they had taken
out my papers, maps, and tools. The wooden bedsteads were wide and
clean. I lay down and went to sleep.
(4)
Edward T. Heald, letter to his wife (6th
May, 1917)
The Petrograd
Soviet was still in session when the Peasants' Convention opened up.
Madame Breshkovskaya, the "Grandmother of the Revolution",
who has recently returned from the long exile in Siberia, made a strong
appeal for real democracy, and the peasants came back strong for democracy
and against the radical Bolsheviki. The latter only got two or three
votes out of eight hundred.
In the
Petrograd Soviet a radical, who had just arrived from New York, by
the name of Trotsky, got up and made a demagogic appeal for the overthrow
of the Duma and for the putting of the Soviet in power as the government.
But the great leaders of the meeting, Kerensky, Tseretelli and Plekhanov,
were against him, and the Soviet voted for participation in the Duma
Government and a new cabinet by a large majority.
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