Ekaterina Arbore, Arbore-Ralli or Ralli-Arbore (rendered into

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

as ''Екатерина Арборе'' or ''Арборэ'' - ''Yekaterina Arborye'' or ''Arbore'', with "Ralli" as ''Ралли''; 1873 or 1875 – 2 December 1937), daughter of

Zamfir Arbore Zamfir Constantin Arbore (; born Zamfir Ralli, russian: Земфирий Константинович Арборе-Ралли, ''Zemfiriyi Konstantinovich Arborye-Ralli''; also known as Zamfir Arbure, Zamfir Rally, Zemphiri Ralli and Aivaza;Felea ...

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 ...

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, 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 th ...

), was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

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 Moldovan

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

activist and official. She was born in

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 ...

Early life

She trained towards a medical degree, and became committed to socialism and the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

during her University years. As such, Ecaterina Arbore took part in the proceedings of the 2nd Congress of the

Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...

in 1903, and she served as member of the Executive Committee of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. She campaigned for an efficient

preventive medicine Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, consists of measures taken for the purposes of disease prevention.Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental hea ...

, especially as an answer to the rising incidence of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

within large groups of the industrial worker population (as stated in her 1907

medical sociology Medical sociology is the sociological analysis of medical organizations and institutions; the production of knowledge and selection of methods, the actions and interactions of healthcare professionals, and the social or cultural (rather than clin ...

work, ''Influenţa industriilor asupra sănătăţii lucrătorilor''). At the same time, she demanded increased

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

, and tried herself to improve conditions, mainly by creating the very first

crèche Crèche or creche (from Latin ''cripia'' "crib, cradle") may refer to: *Child care center, an organization of adults who take care of children in place of their parents *Nativity scene, a group of figures arranged to represent the birth of Jesus ...

s in Romania.

In the Soviet Union

After the

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 ...

, she became an enthusiastic supporter of the

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 ...

cause, opting to leave Romania for Bolshevist Russia in 1918. Once there, after being received in the ranks of the Russian Communist Party, Ecaterina Arbore was integrated in the administrative structure of the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

, as

Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and Eas ...

for Health. She returned to Romania briefly, in 1924, being swiftly expelled by the authorities. Back in the Soviet state, Arbore was a delegate of the ''Romanian Socialist-Communist Party'' (

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...

) to the 5th Congress of 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 ...

, and took part in the Party's 5th Congress in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and

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.Moldavian ASSR * ro, Proletari din toate țările, uniți-vă! (Moldovan Cyrillic: ) * uk, Пролетарі всіх країн, єднайтеся! * russian: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! , title_leader = First Secr ...

, being one of the Romanian/Moldovan intellectuals who endorsed the terms of the Soviet policy towards the Romanian state.

Persecution and murder

As a rather old member of the movement, she was a natural target for

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

's repression. Viewed as a partisan of

Trotskyism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

, she was marginalized and stripped of all political decision. This is the time when she was paid a visit by Romanian author

Panait Istrati Panait Istrati (; sometimes rendered as ''Panaït Istrati''; August 10, 1884 – April 16, 1935) was a Romanian working class writer, who wrote in French and Romanian, nicknamed ''The Maxim Gorky of the Balkans''. Istrati appears to be the ...

, during the latter's revelatory journey to the Soviet lands (as described in his ''The Confession of a Loser''). Istrati praised the work carried by Arbore in the Health Department of the Republic, and likened her the legendary architect Meşterul Manole's wife, who according to myth, was walled in the monastery by her husband, who believed this to be the only thing able to prevent the building from collapsing; this is a reflection on the terror that was mounting in the Soviet Union, as a direct consequence of the state not being able to live up to its promise. She was arrested during the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

, and died in 1937 (it is not known whether this meant she was executed straight away, or whether her death was preceded by a stay in the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

). She was rehabilitated by Soviet authorities during the

De-Stalinization De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...

process, and by Romanian ones a while after the rise of

Nicolae Ceauşescu Nicolae may refer to: * Nicolae (name), a Romanian name * ''Nicolae'' (novel), a 1997 novel See also *Nicolai (disambiguation) *Nicolao Nicolao is an Italian given name and a surname. It may refer to the following: Given name *Nicolao Civitali ...

, during the condemnation of Soviet policies in 1968 (she was exonerated together with most Romanian communist victims of Stalin's purges).

References

Henri H. Stahl Henri H. Stahl (also known as Henry H. Stahl or H. H. Stahl; 1901 – 9 September 1991) was a Romanian Marxist cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, and social historian. Biography Born in Bucharest to a family of Alsatian and ...

''Gânditori şi curente de istorie socială românească'', Cap. VII: "Curentul gândirii socialiste"
* Panait Istrati, ''The Confession of a Loser'', "MASSR" chapter {{DEFAULTSORT:Arbore, Ecaterina 1870s births 1937 deaths Moldovan feminists Romanian socialist feminists Politicians of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Moldovan communists Romanian Communist Party politicians 20th-century Romanian women politicians Transnistrian women in politics Romanian public health doctors Romanian sociologists Romanian women sociologists Medical sociologists Social Democratic Party of Romania (1910–1918) politicians Romanian emigrants to the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Moldova Executed Romanian women Soviet rehabilitations Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic people Moldovan socialist feminists Executed communists Women public health doctors