Zasulich Vera Ivanovna is a very ambiguous historical figure. Those who were not particularly interested in the details of the biography of this woman are likely to remember her in the guise of a heroine who shot at the treacherous official Trepov. Despite the severity of the deed and the fact that the girl intended to commit the worst crime - to kill a person, the jury fully acquitted her in court. Local authorities categorically disagree with this decision and literally the next day issued an order to re-arrest Zasulich. But while such a decision was made, Vera managed to go abroad and avoid imprisonment.
World famous
Due to the fact that the trial of Vera Zasulich at one time gained an international resonance, many have associated her name with justice and the fact that laws written by the authorities are not universal. In domestic works on history, she is mentioned as a publicist, translator of the works of Engels and Marx, as well as an active Russian public activist.
In many sources, she is referred to as the organizer of the very first Marxist organization called the Emancipation of Labor. But at the same time, some of those who studied the information about Vera more carefully call it a simple gangster, lawless person, terrorist and anarchist.
Zasulich Vera Ivanovna: biography, childhood and family
On July 27, 1849, in the small Russian village of Mikhailovka, which was territorially related to the Smolensk province, the girl Vera was born. Her family could not boast of special wealth, since her parents were considered impoverished nobles. In addition to Vera, they had two more daughters. Father - Ivan Zasulich, was a retired officer. He died in 1852, when Vera was only three years old. The mother was not able to feed her three children and therefore they decided to send one of her daughters to a wealthier relative. The choice fell on Vera, and she went to the village of Byakolovo, where her aunts lived. All her childhood passed there, and it was relatives who completely raised the girl.
Youth and education
At the age of fifteen, Zasulich Vera Ivanovna was sent to a private Moscow boarding house. There she studied foreign languages and prepared for work as a governess. Having mastered all the sciences taught in a boarding house quite well, in 1867 Vera received a diploma of a home teacher and went with him to conquer St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, for a young girl without experience and recommendations, there was no job in the specialty. Since she still had to earn money for her life, she got a job as a justice of the peace. After serving as his clerk for about a year, Vera left this job and decided to return to the capital. There she gets a job as a bookbinder and, having free access to many books, constantly reads and is engaged in self-development. It was at this time that Zasulich began to realize a strong desire for revolution and a desire to actively act.
Participation in revolutionary movements and fatal acquaintance with Nechaev
Having lived in St. Petersburg for only a year, Vera Ivanovna Zasulich managed to take part in the work of many revolutionary circles. At the end of 1862, visiting one of them, the girl met with the notorious revolutionary Nechaev. Having noticed Vera and, having apparently seen in her a considerable revolutionary fuse and potential, for a long time he tried to lure her into his organization under the name “People's Reprisal”.
Zasulich rejected such proposals, since she considered all Nechaev’s ideas impossible and fantastic. At the same time, while remaining a supporter of revolutionary views, she left him her address of residence. Later, Nechaev used it to receive and send letters to illegal immigrants. One of these letters, despite the fact that Vera did not even read it, was the reason for her first arrest.
Arrests and Imprisonment
During the transfer of a letter to one of the illegal immigrants, Zasulich Vera Ivanovna was first arrested. For almost a year she was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
After almost 2 years, the woman was released, but literally immediately re-arrested for distributing illegal literature and sent to exile as punishment. Faith leaves her first in the Novgorod province, and then in Tver.
Life Zasulich after the link
In 1875, the girl ends up in Kharkov. All the time she is under the close supervision of the police. In order to somehow arrange her future life, Vera decides to enroll in midwives' courses, but she was not going to say goodbye to revolutionary activities in any way.
In 1872, she became a member of the Southern Rebels organization, which was located in Kiev, but had its representative offices throughout Ukraine. Staying in its ranks, Vera took an active part in organizing peasant riots. After a series of failures, Zasulich returned to St. Petersburg and began working in one of the underground printing houses, which belonged to the organization “Earth and Freedom”. Vera joined her ranks and after a short amount of time, in January 1878, she made her legendary attempt on Trepov.
The deed of the mayor, which provoked the anger of Zasulich
Once, a group of students staged a demonstration near Kazan Cathedral. For participation in it in December 1876, the student Bogolyubov was arrested and then sentenced to hard labor. At that time, bodily torture and punishment of prisoners on a political basis was strictly prohibited. But by order of the mayor Trepov, Bogolyubov was brutally carved with rods. To date, information is already known that 2 years after this incident, the student died in the hospital. Moreover, because of the previously transferred punishment, Bogolyubov was in a state of grim insanity.
The reason why the mayor gave the order to beat the guy with rods was because Bogolyubov did not take off his hat in front of him and thereby showed his disrespect for the tsarist official. Such a decision Trepov caused a resonance among the common people and, of course, many outraged. The revolutionaries could not ignore this fact.
Assassination attempt
One of those who resented the arbitrariness of the mayor was Vera Zasulich.
The attempt on Trepov’s life, which she herself conceived, organized and carried out, went down in history and brought her incredible fame. Later, the act she committed will be described as a terrorist act, and Vera herself will be called a girl who, with her deed, has activated revolutionary terror throughout Russia.
In planning an act of revenge, Zasulich made an appointment with the mayor. On the morning of January 24, 1878, she entered his office and fired, which severely wounded Trepov. Faith was arrested on the spot.
Participants in the history of law
The chairman of the Petersburg District Court at that time was A.F. Koni. The heads of the St. Petersburg prosecutor's office insisted that the case of Vera Zasulich be decided by a jury, since their main desire was to minimize the political aspect of this case. At the same time, ordinary people considered Trepov a corrupt bribe-taker, and even before the order given to them to carve Bogolyubov with rods, his reputation in society was not the best. After the story with the punishment of the student, the opinion of him, of course, did not improve. So the decision that the jury will confirm the verdict, played Zasulich only on hand.
Initially, she was not going to use the help of a lawyer, but after reading the indictment filed by the prosecutor, Vera realized that she could not cope. Many offered her help in defense (since any lawyer wanted to light up in such a high-profile case), but she gave her preference to Peter Alexandrov.
He was the son of a priest and previously worked as a prosecutor of the court of justice. In conversations with his colleagues, Aleksandrov repeatedly assured that he would do everything possible to win the Zasulich case. And he fully met the expectations of Vera. Thanks to his brilliant speech, the jury found her innocent.
Life after excuse
Since local authorities could not allow the popular opinion to be spread that high officials could be shot and then to be acquitted, the court decision was appealed the very next day, and a new order was issued to detain Vera. She predicted such a possible outcome of events, and literally immediately after her release, with the help of friends, Zasulich fled to Switzerland. She returned to her homeland only in 1879 and immediately, along with Plekhanov, began to take an active part in the creation of the Black Repartition organization.
Belief on herself tried the so-called “individual terror” method, but not only was it very quickly disappointed in its effectiveness, it also again threatened the real threat of a second arrest. It was then in her life that a forced second emigration happened - Zasulich hastily left for Paris.
Revolutionary activity
While in France, Vera Ivanovna raised money for Russian political prisoners. Her views on terror are changing radically, and she is becoming an adherent of revolutionary Marxism. She translates into Russian the works of Engels and Marx, prints her articles in many European democratic magazines. Further, she moved to London, where she was an active journalist, engaged in scientific work.
While in Geneva, in 1883, Vera became an active participant in the creation of the Emancipation of Labor group, which was involved in helping Russian emigrants. And only in 1899, under a false name, was a woman able to return back to Petersburg. She personally knew Lenin, was a member of the editorial staff of the magazine Zorya and the newspaper Iskra.
Death of Vera Zasulich
Despite such an active work, towards the end of her life, Vera Zasulich felt sheer disappointment. Based on her impressive experience, she strongly rejected and opposed any manifestation of terrorism as a revolutionary struggle.
She took the February events of 1917 as a bourgeois-democratic revolution, but not a popular one. The October Revolution also brought her only disappointments. Zasulich wrote that the created Soviet power was just a mirror image of the previous, tsarist regime.
Vera Ivanovna died on May 8, 1919. She was buried in the Volkov Cemetery, near the grave of Plekhanov.