- Gesya Gelfman
Infobox Person
name=Gesya Gelfman
caption=
birth_date=1852
birth_place=Mozyr ,Russia Minsk Governorate nowHomel Voblast ofBelarus
death_date=1882
death_place=Saint Petersburg ,Russia Gesya Mirovna Gelfman ("Gesia Gelfman", "Гельфман, Геся Мировна" in Russian) (her name is often incorrectly spelled Gesya Mironovna; she is sometimes referred to as Gesia or Jessie) (between 1852 and 1855,
Mozyr — 2.1(13).1882,Saint Petersburg ), Russianrevolutionary , member ofNarodnaya Volya , implicated in the assassination ofTsar Alexander II of Russia .Early life
Born into a
Jewish family, Gelfman left it at the age of 16 or 17, allegedly to avoid anarranged marriage .Revolutionary activities
In the early 1870s, she was an active member of several revolutionary clubs in
Kiev . In 1877, during theTrial of the Fifty , Gelfman was sentenced to two years in theLitovsky Castle . On1879-03-14 , she was sent intoexile to theprovince ofNovgorod , from where she escaped and joined Narodnaya Volya inSaint Petersburg in 1879.At a personal level, she also practiced then-revolutionary
free love . [Robert H. McNeal, "Women in the Russian Radical Movement," "Journal of Social History", Vol. 5, No. 2. (Winter, 1971-1972), p.155]In 1881 she was part of the group that assassinated Alexander II, along with her then lover,
Nikolai Sablin .Death
During the
Pervomartovtsi trial of 1881, Gelfman was sentenced to death byhanging for her alleged part in the assassination of the Tsar. However, her execution was delayed due to herpregnancy , since according to contemporary law execution of pregnant women was banned as the fetus was considered innocent. The sentence was exchanged for an indefinite period ofkatorga in 1882, thanks to the pro-Gelfman anti-execution campaign in the foreign press.She died in detention in 1882.
Consequences
The importance of Gelfman's role in the assassination was much exaggerated, and her Jewish origins stressed, during the
pogroms that followed the assassination. [Jewish Chronicle, May 6, 1881, quoted in Benjamin Blech, Eyewitness to Jewish History] Another conspirator,Ignacy Hryniewiecki , was also rumored to be Jewish, though there seems to have been no basis for this. The assassination was thus blamed by many on "the Jews," a view which was still to be found on certain internet sites [ for example, http://www.controversy-of-zion.com/Terror_Timeline.pdf] in 2007.References
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSgelfman.htm Spartacus Schoolnet]
* W. Bruce Lincoln, Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern RussiaSee also
*
Nihilist movement
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