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days,
the
woman
worker
E.Saltykova
described
how
women
took
part
in
bringing
down
telegraph poles
to
use
them in
constructing
ibid,
511
S.Semanov,
Peterburgskie
rabochie nakanune
pervoi
russkoi
revoliutsii,
31

116
barricades
and how
they
enmeshed the entire
surrounding
area
in wires. She
performed
the duties of
a
nurse
tending
to
the wounded rebels while her husband
was
among
the armed workers.
They
had
to
leave their
two
little children in the
care
of
a
young
girl,
not
knowing
whether
they
would
ever see
them
again.
The
Saltykovs
returned
to
their home in
factory
barracks
two
weeks later.
During police
reprisals
her
husband
was
arrested and
shot,
while her life
was
spared
only
because
at
the time of
the
arrest
she
was
holding
their
baby.
E.Saltykova
was
sacked from the
factory
and
she had
to
rely
on
donations
from other
factory
workers
to
bury
her
husband.
Eventually
she had
to
go
to
some
friends in
a
village
to
support
her
two
little
children.
Many
more
women
workers
were
involved in the 1905 Revolution.
For
some
it
was a
continuation of their
previous political activities,
like in the
case
of the
Ivanovo
female
deputies
or
the
Petersburg
woman
worker
Iraida Karaseva. Born in
1891,
she witnessed the
arrests
of her father and
brother,
both of whom
were
revolutionaries,
prior
to
the
events
of 1905. She described what
happened
that year
as
giving
her 'stimulus and
more
revolutionary
tempering'.34
During
the December
uprising
in Moscow in 1905 Karaseva
was an
active
participant
in the
street
demonstrations. In
December
that
year
her father became
one
of the victims of
a
punitive
expedition,
in
a
similar
way
to
that of
Saltykova's
husband. Two months
later Karaseva
joined
the RSDRP and became
a
party
organiser
at
her
factory.
The
years
between 1909 and 1917
were
spent
in
prisons
and exile. When Karaseva
was
released after the
February
revolution she
immediately
returned
to
active
party
work
in Moscow.
In
contrast to
Karaseva's
story,
Praskov'ia Dmitrieva's
revolutionary
awakening
was
almost accidental. Born in 1880 in St.
Petersburg,
she
was
only
a
baby
when her mother died. Her
plumber
father
sent
her
to
a
distant
relative,
unable
or
unwilling
to
bring
the child
up
himself.
At
the age of
nine, having
studied
for
two
years
in
a
parish school,
she became
an
apprentice
in
a
tailor's
workshop
where she
stayed
for the
next
seven
years.
By
then Dmitrieva
was
sixteen and the
year
was
1905:
One
day
in 1905 in
Leningrad
[sic]
I
had occasion
to
go
out
where
I
joined
a
passing
demonstration.
By
the Vosstanie
Bridge
some
students
were
organising
groups
to
help
the
wounded.
For the
next
three
days
I
;34
ibid.,
case
823

117
stayed
out
without
going
back
home,
going
from
street to street
picking
up
the wounded.
As
a
result
I
ended up with
pneumonia,
was
found in
a
street
and
sent to
the Obukhovo
hospital.
There
was a
separate
wing
for those found in the
streets
during
the
uprising
where for the first
time I
met
revolutionary
workers. When
I
was
finally
released from the
hospital
I
had
to
change
my
place
of
work.35
Dmitrieva
joined
an
underground
workers' circle where she
stayed
until 1908. She
was
a runner
between the circle and the workers from the Pal'
factory
and the
nearby
army
regiment.
During
the
next
three
years
she took
part
in
mass
meetings
and
workers'
gatherings
and
distributed
literature.
In
1908 Praskov'ia
joined
the RSDRP.
Shortly
after she
was
arrested and exiled. On her
return
in 1910
to
Petersburg
she
was
unable
to
find
a
regular job.
The
years
until 1917
were
spent
in
commuting
between
Moscow
and
Petersburg,
doing
odd
factory jobs
and
performing
party
tasks.
In
the
February
Revolution Dmitrieva
was
among
the hundreds of
women
in the
street
and
in October she
joined
her
party
comrades in
following
orders of their leaders.
Not
only factory
workers became involved in the
revolutionary
events.
Among
Rostov
female
deputies
were women
domestic
workers,
laundresses and other service
sector
workers,
precisely
those
women
generally
considered
impossible
to
organise.
Their
participation
was
proof
that
not
only
factory
women
workers
were
able
to
show
initiative
and
were
capable
of
organising
themselves without
necessarily
having
to
rely
on
directives from the
largely
intellectual
party
leadership.
But of
course,
during
those
days
it
was
not
only
women
of the
working
class
who
were
active
participants,
even
if in
some cases a
woman's
participation appeared
to
be almost accidental. Women of the
intelligentsia,
whether
they
were
revolutionaries,
feminists
or
philanthropists,
also became involved in the conflict
/between
the
democratic forces and the conservative
government.
Members of the All-
Russian
Union for Women's
Equality,
which has been mentioned
at
the
beginning
of
:
this
chapter,
took
part
in
setting
up and
running
canteens
for the
striking
workers.
Basically
an
urban
organisation,
it
campaigned
to
recruit
more
members and
set
up
branches
in other
towns.
One such
attempt
in Voronezh failed after
only
30
women
35
VOSB,
Fond
124,
case
598

118
female
office workers
came
to
the first
meeting.
At the
meeting
E.
Nagurskaia,
a
Bolshevik,
severely
criticised the Union's aims and branded them
as
incompatible
with
the interests of
women
workers.36
Another
organisation
dealing primarily
with women's issues
was
the
Women's
Progressive
Party,
whose
chairperson
was
the feminist
physician
Mariia
Pokrovskaia.
Unlike the Union it
was a
women-only
organisation
with
a
close
interest
in the
position
of
working
class
women.
This
party
too
was
campaigning
for social
reform
in the
country
that would lead
to
equal
pay for
men
and
women
and
more
protective legislation.
The last
large
women's
organisation
that worked
actively
on
behalf of
women's issues
had
already
been in existence for the
previous
ten
years. In
1905 its
leader
was
Anna Shabanova.
Unwilling
to
be associated with other
political
groups it
used
lobbying
as
its main
weapon.
All three of
them,
however,
failed
to
secure
electoral
rights
for
women,
when the first Russian Duma assembled in 1906. The
women's response
came
not
only
from
towns
but also from the
countryside.
A
group
of
peasant
women
from Voronezh
guberniia
sent
a
letter
to
the Duma
deputies
protesting
their exclusion from the
new
assembly:
We have learned from the newspapers that the Voronezh
deputy
Kruglikov
stated in the Duma that
a
peasant
recognised only
one
type
of work for
a woman
-
the
one
in the
family. Kruglikov
insists that
peasant
women
themselves do
not
wish
to
have any
rights.
There is
not
a
single
elected
woman
to
the Duma who could
speak
for all
womenfolk,
so
how does he know? He is
wrong
in
saying
that
a
peasant
woman
does
not
wish
to
have
any
rights;
did he ask us?
We,
the
women
from Voronezh
uyezd
of Voronezh
guberniia,
understand
only
too
well that
rights
and land will
not
interfere with
our
work in the
family
and if
some
land could be allocated
to
each
woman
then many
women's
tears
and
reproaches
aimed
at
them will be eliminated!
A
woman
will
no
longer
be
a
burden
to
a
family...
we
want
rights
not
simply
for
our own
sake: those
rights
will allow
us
to
stand
up
for
our
v
T.Sevast'ianova,
Revoliutsionerki
Voronezha,
10

119
husbands
and children... We
grieve
for the lack of elected
women
in
the
Duma.37
The
April
elections
to
the Duma
were
boycotted by
the
two
revolutionary
parties,
the
Socialist
Revolutionaries
(PSR)
and the
Social
Democrats
(RSDRP).
Established
in
1901
the PSR is
seen as
the heir
to
the
People's
Will of the 1880s and is best known
through
the actions of its militant
wing,
the
Combat
Organisation
that
had unleashed
a
terror
campaign
on
the
country
which lasted for
the
next ten
years.
Indeed,
a
whole
number
of former
Narodniki
joined
it. One of the PSR's
founding
members and the
force behind its
theoretical
teachings
was
Ekaterina
Breshko-Breshkovskaia.
A.
Iakimova-Dikovskaia
was a
PSR
member
between 1905 and 1907.
Among
Breshkovskaia's
other former comrades-in-arms who
decided
to
join
the PSR
was
Praskov'ia
Voloshenko
(nee Ivanovskaia)
who turned
to
the SR
movement
in the
early
1900s. After
serving
a
twenty-year
sentence
in
a
penal
colony
Voloshenko
was
instrumental
in
setting
up
an
SR
printing
house in
Chita.
She
absconded
from the
colony
in
1903 and
on
arrival in
Petersburg
joined
the SR Combat
Organisation.
There,
Voloshenko
took
part
in
organising
the
assassinations
of the Minister of the
Interior,
Pleve
(1904)
and of the Governor General of
Petersburg, Trepov.
She
was re¬
arrested in March of 1905 but
released
by
a
royal
decree of
17th
October. She
continued
to
play
an
active role
in
the SR
party
though
between 1906 and 1913 she
was
living
abroad.
Some scholars believe that
by
1905 half of the PSR
membership
was
working
class.38
Unlike its
predecessor,
the SR
movement
appealed
more
to
urban
workers.
In
1905 the Moscow
Prokhorovskaia
paper mill
was
described
as an
'SR
citadel'
during
the
highest point
in the revolution because its workers had close links with the
countryside.
In his memoirs
one
of the
SR
leaders, Chernov,
referred
to
the
Prokhorovskaia
paper mill
as a
'centre
of SR
agitation...
that chose
only
SR members
to
its Soviet of Workers'
deputies'.39
Unfortunately,
with the PSR
party
being
the
loser
in 1917
any
factual material
on
its
members,
and
specifically
the rank and file
members with
working-class
and
peasant
backgrounds,
is
virtually
non-existent. No
|7
ibid.,
8
38
C.Rice,
Russian Workers and the Socialist
Revolutionary Party
through
the Revolution
of
1905-07,
195
9
Partita
Sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov,
Dokumenty
i
materialy,
1900-1922,
vol.
1,
193 and 658

120
the senior
leadership
focuses
more on
the SR male leaders than its female
ones,
with
only
a
few notable
exceptions,
like Breshko-Breshkovskaia and Mariia
Spiridonova.
Such
reference
books
as
Uchastniki
russkogo
revoliutsionnogo
dvizheniia
epokhi
bor
'by
s
tsarismom
(a
biographical dictionary
of Russian
revolutionaries,
former exiles and
penal
colony prisoners) provide
readers with
only
short sketches for
each individual.
(See
Appendix
Two) Among
those included
are
several dozen of
female SRs: Vera
Anan'eva,
a
Tambov
peasant
born
in 1885 and exiled in 1905 for
her
membership
of the SR
party;
Nina
Babakshvili,
a
daughter
of Tiflis unskilled
worker,
was
born in 1889 and arrested in 1909 after six
years
in the
PSR;
Ekaterina
Babakina,
a
peasant
from Samara
guberniia,
born in
1884,
she
was
arrested after
only
one
year
in the
party.
All three
women were
sentenced
to
lengthy
imprisonment
and
hard labour. We learn
nothing
about the indiviual's
deeds,
the
reasons
behind their
harsh
punishment
or
the
reasons
that
put
them
on
the road of
terror.
We have
to
rely
on
the information about those
male,
and
occasionally
female, revolutionaries,
who
did make it into the
history
books and
were
rewarded with the laurels of
glory.
Between
the
Two Revolutions
The
years
that
followed
1905
saw a
gradual
abatement of
revolutionary
activities
in
the
country
and the
increasing intensity
in the
reactionary policies
of the tsarist
government.
Many
of the
participants
in the 1905
revolutionary upheaval
and strike
movement
were
either in
prison,
Siberian
exile,
underground
or
in the
case
of many
<
leading
party
members in
political emigration
abroad. The terrorist
acts
carried
out
mainly by
the members
or
supporters
of the PSR
persisted
well into 1907. Anna
Geifman
in her
study
of
revolutionary
terrorism in Russia estimates that between 1905
and 1907 there
were more
than
9,000
victims and casualties of terrorist atrocities in
the
country.40
These
figures
do
not
include the economic
damage
caused
by
expropriations
or
robberies.
The
most
radical element of the PSR
was
its
Combat
Organisation (CO),
which
operated
between 1901 and 1911.
Appendix
One contains
a
table
with
biographical
information
on
the female members of the group.
During
that
^period
there
were
72 male and 19 female
(20.8%
of the total
membership)
members in
:40
A.Geifman,
Thou Shalt Kill.
Revolutionary
Terrorism in
Russia,
1894-1917,
21.

121
the
CO.41
As has been
pointed
out
above
primary
source
information is much
less
readily
available for female Socialist Revolutionaries.
Only
very
few left written
memoirs
about their
past.
Moreover,
some
scholars
suggest
that
even
those should be
treated
with
great
caution,
not
unlike the memoirs of
some
social democratic
revolutionaries.
Mariia
Spiridonova
became
a
legendary
figure
in SR
folklore.
She
was
born in
1884 into
an
upper middle-class
family
in Tambov. At school she stood
out
not
only
because of her academic abilities but also because of her critical
outspokenness
and
strong-willed
nature.
Like for
many
other revolutionaries Mariia's introduction
to
radical
causes
and eventual terrorist actions
began
from
a
study
circle. Similar
to
other
smaller
places
of the Russian
Empire,
representatives
of Social Democrats and
Socialist
Revolutionaries worked
together
in
agitating
among workers and
students.
Spiridonova
became
more
attracted
to
the latter. When
a
decision
was
taken in 1906
to
revenge the
high
number of atrocities committed
by
Cossacks under General
Luzhenovskii who led them in
stamping
out
peasant
revolts,
the
group
did
not
have
to
appoint
a
member
who
could carry
out
the
assassination:
Spiridonova
volunteered
to
do it. Mariia made
no
attempt
to
escape
and
was
severely
beaten
by
the General's
guards.
During
the trial
Spiridonova explained
her action in
a
defiant
way:
Yes.
I
killed Luzhenovskii and
I
want to
explain why.
I
am a
member
of the Socialist
Revolutionary Party
and
my
action is
explained by
the
party's
ideals.
...
I
shall
not
speak
of the
attempts
to
'calm down'
peasants
with
reference
to
...
[many]
guberniias
...;
I
shall
give
you
just
one
example
of
an
uezd and what
one
blood-thirsty
'worker', Luzhenovskii,
did in
it.
I
shall remind
you
of several
villages,
which he had visited.
In
the
village
of Pavlodar
ten
people
were
killed.
They
were
tortured
to
death.
They
were
tortured for four
days.
...
in the
same
village
40
people
were
wounded. In the
village
of
Berezovka
Karp
Klemanov,
a
peasant
went
crazy
after
being
tortured;
in the
village
of
Peski,
two went
mad...
R.Gorodnitskii,
Boevaia
organizatsiiapartii
sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov
v
1901-1911
gg.,
235

122
As
commander he covered himself with
glory.
The
trophies
he
laid
at
the feet of the
bureaucracy
were
murdered
peasants,
ruined