Vera Figner

Infobox Person
name=Vera Figner
caption=Vera Figner circa 1880
birth_date=birth date|1852|6|25|mf=y
birth_place=Kazan, Russia
death_date=1943
death_place=Russia

Vera Nikolayevna Figner (Filippova) ("Вера Николаевна Фигнер (Филиппова)") (6.25(7.7).1852 – 6.15.6.1942) was a Russian revolutionary and narodnik born June 25, 1852 in Kazan, Russia.

History

From 1863-1869, Vera Figner attended Rodionovsky Institute for Women in Kazan. From 1872-1875, she was a student of Department of Medicine at the University of Zurich. In 1873, Figner joined a student club called Frichi, members of which would later form the nucleus of the All-Russian Social Revolutionary Organization. In December 1875, she returned to Russia and a year later became one of the separatist narodniks (Yuri Bogdanovich and others among them), who had been siding with Zemlya i volya.

Figner took part in the Kazan demonstration in St.Petersburg in 1876. From 1877-1879, working as a doctor's assistant, she conducted revolutionary propaganda in the villages around Samara and Saratov. In 1879, Figner took part in the Voronezh Congress of "Zemlya i volya" ("Land and Liberty"). After the split of Zemlya i volya in 1879, she became a member of the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya (The Will of the People), conducting propaganda activities among intelligentsia, students and military in St.Petersburg, Kronstadt and southern parts of Russia. Figner took part in the creation of the paramilitary wing of Narodnaya Volya and its activities. She participated in planning the assassination of Alexander II in 1880 in Odessa and in 1881 in St. Petersburg. After the successful assassination attempt on the tsar on March 1, 1881, Figner conducted revolutionary activities in Odessa. Being the only member of the Executive Committee left in Russia, she tried to resurrect Narodnaya Volya starting in 1882, which had been eliminated by the police.

Arrest and exile

As a result of the betrayal by Sergey Degayev, a police informer infiltrated into her sedicious circle, Figner was arrested at Kharkov, on February 10, 1883 and a year later sentenced to death, during the Trial of the Fourteen. The sentence, however, was commuted, through the intercession of Niko Nikoladze, to perpetual penal servitude in Siberia. She spent the 20 months before her trial in solitary confinement at the Peter and Paul Fortress and was then imprisoned for 20 years at Schlüsselburg. In 1904, Figner was sent into internal exile to the Arkhangelsk guberniya, then Kazan guberniya, and finally Nizhny Novgorod. In 1906 she was allowed to go abroad, where she organized a campaign for political prisoners in Russia. She spoke in different European cities, collected money, published a brochure on Russian prisons translated into many languages. From 1907-1909, Figner joined the Esers, but left the party after the Azef scandal. In 1915 she returned to Russia.

Post-revolution

After the October Revolution (she never accepted the way it had happened), Figner published her book called "Memoirs of a Revolutionist" ("Запечатлённый труд"), which is still considered one of the best examples of the Russian memoir genre. The book made her famous worldwide and was translated into many languages. Figner was also a member of the "Society of the Former Political Prisoners and Exiles" (Обществo бывших политкаторжан и ссыльнопоселенцев). She took active part in a magazine called "Katorga and Exile" ("Каторга и ссылка"). Figner authored a number of biographies of several narodniks and articles on history of the Russian revolutionary movement from the 1870s-1880s.