v Primary Sources v

Gesia Gelfman, the daughter of a Jewish businessman, was born in Mozyr, Russia. At seventeen, her father, without consulting his daughter, decided to marry her off to a family friend. Gelfman rebelled by running away to Kiev, where she began training to become a midwife.

Gelfman joined Pan-Russian Social Revolutionary group where she worked with Olga Liubatovich. In September, 1875, she was arrested and convicted of distributing illegal literature. As a result of her social status she was imprisoned in the St. Petersburg Workhouse.

In 1879 Gelfman was sent from St. Petersburg to finish her sentence in Siberia. She escaped a few months later and when she returned she joined the People's Will group.

In 1881 Gelfman joined with Sophia Perovskaya, Andrei Zhelyabov, Nikolai Sablin, Ignatei Grinevitski, Nikolai Kibalchich, Nikolai Rysakov and Timofei Mikhailov in the plot to kill Alexander II.

Two days after Alexander II was assassinated, the police raided the house where Gelfman and her lover, Nikolai Sablin were living. Sabin committed suicide but Gelfman was arrested and soon after was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Gelfman's execution was postponed because she was pregnant. According to her friend, Olga Liubatovich: "Gesia languished under the threat of execution for five months; finally her sentence was commuted, just before she was to deliver. At the hands of the authorities, the terrible act of childbirth became a case of torture unprecedented in human history. For the delivery, they transferred her to the House of Detention. The torments suffered by poor Gesia Gelfman exceeded those dreamed up by the executioners of the Middle Ages; but Gesia didn't go mad - her constitution was too strong. The child was born live, and she was even able to nurse it." Soon after she gave birth her daughter was taken from her.

Gesia Gelfman died from peritonitis on 12th October, 1882.

^ Main Article ^

(1) Olga Liubatovich was a close friend of Gesia Gelfman and wrote about her in her autobiography published in 1906.

Gesia languished under the threat of execution for five months; finally her sentence was commuted, just before she was to deliver. At the hands of the authorities, the terrible act of childbirth became a case of torture unprecedented in human history. For the delivery, they transferred her to the House of Detention. The torments suffered by poor Gesia Gelfman exceeded those dreamed up by the executioners of the Middle Ages; but Gesia didn't go mad - her constitution was too strong. The child was born live, and she was even able to nurse it.

Under Russian law, Gesia's rights as a mother were protected, even though she was a convict; no one could take her baby away. But at that time, who would have considered being guided by the law? One night shortly after the child was born, the authorities came in and took her away from Gesia. In the morning, they brought her to a foundling home, where they abandoned her without taking a receipt or having her tagged - the despite the fact that many people (myself included) had offered to raise the child. The mother could not endure the final blow, and she soon died.