Sophia Lvovna Perovskaya

Infobox Person
name=Sophia Lvovna Perovskaya
caption=Sophia Perovskaya had short-cropped hair, as most nihilists did
birth_date=September 1 (13), 1853
birth_place=
death_date=April 3 (15), 1881
death_place=Russia

Sophia Lvovna Perovskaya ("Перовская, Софья Львовна" in Russian) (September 1 (13), 1853 - April 3 (15), 1881), Russian revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya. Daughter of a former military governor of St.Petersburg, Perovskaya entered the Alarchinsky University for Women in 1869. In 1871—1872, together with other three women friends, she joined the Circle of Tchaikovsky. In 1872—1873 and 1874—1877, she worked in the provinces of Samara, Tver, and Simbirsk. During this period, she received diplomas as a teacher and a medical assistant.

In 1873, Perovskaya maintained a few conspiracy apartments in Saint Petersburg for secret anti-tsarist propaganda meetings that had not been sanctioned by the authorities. In January 1874, she was arrested and placed in the Petropavlovskaya fortress in connection with the Trial of 193. In 1877-1878, she was acquitted. Perovskaya also took part in an unsuccessful attempt to free a revolutionary and a member of Narodnaya volya Ippolit Myshkin. In summer of 1878, Perovskaya became a member of Zemlya i volya, was soon arrested again, and banished to the Olonetskaya province. She managed to escape on her way to the exile and went underground.

As a member of Zemlya i volya, Perovskaya went to Kharkov in order to organize the liberation of political prisoners from the central prison. In the fall of 1879, she became a member of the Executive Committee and later a member of the Administrative Committee of Zemlya i volya. Perovskaya conducted propaganda among students, soldiers, and workers, took part in organizing the "Worker's Gazette", maintained ties with political prisoners in Saint Petersburg. Perovskaya participated in preparing assassination attempts on Alexander II of Russia near Moscow (November, 1879), in Odessa (spring of 1880), and Saint Petersburg (the attempt that eventually killed him, March 1, 1881). She was the closest friend and later wife of Andrei Zhelyabov. Perovskaya was arrested on March 10, 1881 and sentenced to death by hanging along with a few other Pervomartovtsi.

Sophia Perovskaya was the first woman in Russia executed in connection with a political trial.

Literary references

*Henry Parkes was inspired to write the poem, "The Beauteous Terrorist". Reproduced in full in " [http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/v00018.pdf The Beauteous Terrorist and Other Poems] by [http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ Sydney Electronic Text and Image Service] .
*Moss, Walter G., "Alexander II and His Times: A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky". London: Anthem Press, 2002. Several chapters on Perovskaya. (available [http://people.emich.edu/wmoss/publications/ online] )