Maria Nikiforova

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Maria Nikiforova, or Nikiphorova (1885 - 1919), was an anarchist partisan leader whose activities influenced the Ukrainian revolutionary Nestor Makhno.

A member of a local Ukrainian anarchist group, her involvement in terrorist activities during 1905-1906 led to a death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment. She served part of her sentence in the Petropavlovsk prison in Petrograd, before being exiled to Siberia in 1910. From there she escaped to Japan and then the United States.

In the summer of 1917, she returned to Oleksandrivsk in Ukraine where she organized a combat detachment to terrorize the city's authorities, in particular army officers and landlords. In December 1917 helped to establish soviet power in eastern Ukraine cities of Kharkiv and Yekaterinoslav, as well as Oleksandrivsk. The Bolshevik commander in the region, Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, gave her funds to upgrade her detachment which was known as the "Free Combat Druzhina". This unit was active in fighting the Whites Guards, the Ukrainian Nationalists, and the Germans-Austro-Hungarians over a large area of southern Ukraine. She was instrumental in establishing Soviet power in the city of Yelizavetgrad (today Kirovohrad) and later was involved in bloody battles in quelling a right-wing revolt in the city.[citation needed]

Nikiforova was put on the trial twice by the Bolsheviks on charges of insubordination and pillaging: in Taganrog in April 1918 and in Moscow in January 1919. She was acquitted at the first trial; at the second, she was sentenced to "six months deprivation of the right to hold responsible posts."

Nikiforova's goal was the destruction of all State institutions. In August 1917, she seized and robbed a military storehouse at Orikhiv, subsequently attacking, disarming and dispersing the town's regiment and executing all officers captured. Some of the spoils were delivered to Makhno. In April 1918, she received a commendation from the Bolshevik general Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko for her revolutionary activities.

Nikiforova was captured and executed by forces loyal to the White movement in 1919, during the Russian Civil War.

[edit] Sources

  • Palij, Michael The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918-21.
  • Archibald, Malcolm Atamansha - The Story of Maria Nikiforova, the Anarchist Joan of Arc.

[edit] External links

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