Cecilia Samoylovna Bobrovskaya (russian: Цецилия Самойловна Бобровская,

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Zelikson �еликсон 6 July 1960) was an early

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

activist, revolutionary, and memoirist. She played a notable role in various local organizations of the

Bolshevik Party " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

consequently facing repeated persecution by the authorities of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. Bobrovskaya is best known for her memoirs, ''Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik'' (1934).

Biography

Bobrovskaya, née Cecilia Samoylovna Zelikson, was born into the family of Samuil Zelikson, an observant

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish bookkeeper whom she described as preoccupied with his "

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

ic and philosophic researches," and his wife, a significantly younger Jewish woman, in

Velizh Velizh (russian: Ве́лиж) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Velizhsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the bank of the Daugava River, Western Dvina, from Smolensk, the adminis ...

, a provincial Russian town in the Vitebsk Guberniya (now

Smolensk Oblast Smolensk Oblast (russian: Смоле́нская о́бласть, ''Smolenskaya oblast''; informal name — ''Smolenschina'' (russian: Смоле́нщина)) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative centre is the city of ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

).Bobrovskaya, Cecilia. ''Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik'
I. My Parental Home. I go to Warsaw.
New York: International Publishers, 1934. Cecilia Bobrovskaya History Archive. 2002.

Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels ...

. Retrieved 5 November 2009. Bobrovskaya stepped into the Russian

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

current as a student in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

in the 1890s. She entered into the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...

(RSDLP) in 1898, and sided with its

faction following the intra-party division into the Bolshevik and

Menshevik The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions eme ...

camps in 1903. She met her husband, Vladimir Bobrovsky, during their mutual involvement in political work against the czarist regime. Bobrovskaya was first arrested in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1902, she returned to

, choosing

Tver Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population: Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian ...

as a center of activity following an arrest in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. She first met with

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

, then based in the Swiss city of

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, in 1902, during her work as an agent of the ''

Iskra ''Iskra'' ( rus, Искра, , ''the Spark'') was a political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). History Due to political repression under Tsar Nicho ...

'', the party newspaper Lenin had founded in 1900, and, together with her husband Vladimir, followed the party's work to the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

. In 1905, she was arrested by the police while on her way to the party's conference in Moscow.Itkina, Anna Markovna. ''Женщины русской революции'' (''Women of the Russian Revolution''). Moscow: Politizdat, 1968. P. 143. Arrested in Moscow again after an illegal party gathering outside the city in June 1908, Bobrovskaya spent two years in

exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

Vologda Vologda ( rus, Вологда, p=ˈvoləɡdə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda (river), Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. ...

, being spared, according to her later recollection of the episode, from the harsher sentence of four years of internal exile in

eastern Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

on account of her poor state of health.Bobrovskaya, Cecilia. ''Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik'
XIV. The Sequel
http://www.marxists.org/archive/bobrovskaya/twenty-years/ch15.htm XV. In Moscow Again.] New York: International Publishers, 1934. Cecilia Bobrovskaya History Archive. 2002.

. Retrieved 5 November 2009. Bobrovskaya was involved in the

Serpukhov Serpukhov ( rus, Серпухов, p=ˈsʲɛrpʊxəf) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Oka and the Nara Rivers, south from Moscow ( from Moscow Ring Road) on the Moscow—Simferopol highway. The Moscow— T ...

and Moscow party committees during 1917, and participated in the 1917

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

."Бобровская, Цецилия Самойловна"
("Bobrovskaya, Cecilia Samoylovna"). ''Большая Советская Энциклопедия'' (''

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya en ...

''), Third Edition. Ed. Alexander Prokhorov. Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978. From March 1919 to May 1920, Bobrovskaya led the military affairs council of the Bolshevik Party's Moscow branch. She worked for the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

between 1918 and 1940, and was a member of the

Institute of Marxism-Leninism An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

under the

Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, – TsK KPSS was the executive leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, acting between sessions of Congress. According to party statutes, the committee direct ...

, the party's central theoretical and research institute, in later years. She died in Moscow in 1960. Bobrovskaya wrote down a number of personal accounts of the revolution and remembrances of such figures as Lenin and

Nadezhda Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya ( rus, links=no, Надежда Константиновна Крупская, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə kənstɐnˈtʲinəvnə ˈkrupskəjə; 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary and the wife of Vladimir Lenin ...

, and others. Her best known work, the memoir ''Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik'', documenting in first person her role in the revolutionary movement from 1894 to 1914, was published in Moscow in 1934 and is cited as a primary source on the pre

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

period by both

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

historians.

References

External links

Bobrovskaya, Cecilia.
Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik
'

on the

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bobrovskaya, Cecilia 1873 births 1960 deaths People from Velizh People from Velizhsky Uyezd Russian Jews Jews from the Russian Empire Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks Comintern people Jewish socialists Marxist writers Recipients of the Order of Lenin Soviet Jews Soviet non-fiction writers Soviet women writers Revolutionaries from the Russian Empire