Catherine Breshkovsky
| Catherine Breshkovsky | |
|---|---|
Breshkovsky at work
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| Native name | Екатерина Брешко-Брешковская |
| Born |
Екатерина Константиновна Вериго 13 January 1844 Ivanovo, Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire (now Pskov Oblast, Russia) |
| Died |
12 September 1934 (aged 90) Chvaly, Czechoslovakia |
Catherine Breshkovsky (real name Yekaterina Konstantinovna Breshko-Breshkovskaya, Russian: Екатерина Константиновна Брешко-Брешковская; 13 January 1844 – 12 September 1934) was a Russian socialist, also known as the grandmother of the Russian Revolution.
She left her home at the age of 26 to join followers of anarchist Mikhail Bakunin in Kiev. As a Narodnik revolutionary, she was imprisoned 1874 at Katorga and exiled to Siberia in 1878, during which she was interviewed by George Kennan, a journalist working for The Century magazine, along with artist George A. Frost. Kennan was later quoted to say "All my standards of courage, of fortitude, and of heroic self-sacrifice have been raised for all time, and raised by the hand of a woman". After her release in 1896, she formed a Socialist-Revolutionary group and helped to organize the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1901.
She escaped to Switzerland and the United States in 1900. After returning to Imperial Russia in 1905, she was captured and exiled to Siberia again. After the February Revolution of 1917, political prisoners were released, and Breshkovsky was given a seat in Aleksandr Kerensky's government. When the Bolsheviks organized the October Revolution, Breshkovsky was again forced to flee. She died in Czechoslovakia.
Her son Nikolay Breshko-Breshkovsky became a writer.
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