Elizabeth Kovalskaia

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Elizabeth Kovalskaia
Born	1850
Died	1933 Russia

Elizabeth Kovalskaia was a Russian Revolutionary and founding member of Black Repartition.

[edit] Early life

Kovalskaia, daughter of a serf was born in 1850, was the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy land owner, who owned both her and her mother. In 1857 Kovalskaia's father agreed to grant her and her mother their freedom. When he died he unexpectedly left his large estate to his illegitimate daughter.

[edit] Revolutionary life

She went on to join the Kharkov society for the promotion of literacy. While carrying out her charity work, she became increasingly interested in socialism and feminism. Impressed by the work of Robert Owen, she used one of her inherited houses as a college for young women seeking education.

In 1869 she met Sophia Perovskaya and began attending her women's meeting, both joining Zemlya i volya (The Land and Liberty).

When Zemlya i volya split, Kovalskaia joined the Black Repartition, while her colleague Sophia Perovskaya joined Narodnaya Volya (The Peoples Will). Black Repartition rejected terrorism, while Narodnaya Volya felt that terrorist acts where an appropriate method in forcing reform. Kovalskaia worked with Black Repartition to support a socialist propaganda campaign among workers and peasants.

Although only involved in propaganda work, she was arrested in 1881, found guilty of being a member of an illegal organisation and sentenced to hard labour for life.

During the next twenty three years, she went through several hunger strikes and made two unsuccessful prison escapes.

She was finally released in 1903, moving to Geneva and joining the Socialist Revolutionary Party. After the February Revolution, Kovalskaia returned to Russia and worked in the state archives and served as a member of the editorial board of a journal devoted to the history of the revolutionary movement.

Elizabeth finally died in 1933.