Zasulich V. I. (1849-1919) revolutionary

Categories / Social Life/Personalia
ZASULICH Vera Ivanovna (1849-1919, Petrograd), a revolutionary, literary critic, and publicist. Educated in a women’s boarding school in Moscow, she came to St. Petersburg in 1868 to join revolutionary circles. She was arrested for her involvement in Nechaev's Case in 1869 and exiled by an administrative decision in 1871. She returned to St. Petersburg in 1877. It was Zasulich who shot F.F. Trepov, chief of St. Petersburg administration, in the City Administration Building (2/6 Gorokhovaya Street) on 24 January 1878. The jury trial with A.F. Koni as a presiding judge and P.A. Alexandrov as a defence attorney acquitted her in March 1878. Zasulich then joined Cherny Peredel (Black Repartition) in 1879 and emigrated in 1880. While abroad, she became one of the founders of Osvobozhdenie Truda (Liberation of Labour), a Marxist group, in 1883 and wrote for the St. Petersburg magazines Novoe Slovo and Nauchnoye Obozrenie under a pen-name. She returned to Russia illegally in 1899-1900. After the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party was held in 1903, she became a leader of Mensheviks. Amnestied, she came back to Russia in November 1905 to work as a journalist and translator in St. Petersburg. She lived in Golubev Writers' House at 19 Literatorov Street from 1909. She was a member of Edinstvo (Unity), a social-democratic group, in 1914-18 and became one of the editors of the Mensheviks' newspaper Rabochaya Gazeta from March 1917. She was a strong opponent of the events of October 1917. She wrote papers on J.-J. Rousseau, Voltaire, D.I. Pisarev, N.A. Dobrolyubov, N.G. Chernyshevsky, and memoirs. Zasulich was buried at Literatorskie Mostki near G.V. Plekhanov's grave, and a stele was erected on her grave in 1924. Zasulich's archives are kept in Plekhanov's House.

Reference: Федорченко Л. С. Вера Ивановна Засулич: Жизнь и деятельность. М., 1926; Кони А. Ф. Воспоминания о деле Веры Засулич. М.; Л., 1933; Курбатова И. Н. Архив В. И. Засулич в Доме Плеханова // Книги. Архивы. Автографы: Обзоры, сообщения, публикации. М., 1973. С. 136-154.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Alexandrov Peter Akimovich
Chernyshevsky Nikolay Gavrilovich
Dobrolyubov Nikolay Alexandrovich
Golubev Viktor Fedorovich
Koni Anatoly Fedorovich
Pisarev Dmitry Ivanovich
Plekhanov Georgy Valentinovich
Rousseau Jean-Jacques
Trepov Fedor Fedorovich
Voltaire Francois Marie Arouet
Zasulich Vera Ivanovna
Gorokhovaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 2/6
Literatorov St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 19
Cherny Peredel, revolutionary organizations
Literatorskie (Literary) Mostki, the museum-necropolis
1878
1878