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. Soon after she gave
birth her daughter was taken from her. Gesia
Gelfman died
from peritonitis on 12th October, 1882.
(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.
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