Mariya Markovna Shkolnik (previously transliterated as Marie Sukloff, Russian: Мария Марковна Школьник) (6 March 1882 - 9 April 1955) was a member of the Russian revolutionary movement that attempted to assassinate

Alexei Khvostov Aleksey Nikolayevich Khvostov () (1 July 1872 – 23 August 1918) was a right-wing Russian politician and the leader of the Russian Assembly. He was a governor, a Privy Councillor (Russia), a chamberlain, a member of the Black Hundreds, and anti- ...

and escaped exile in Siberia twice. Mariya was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and assisted in the propaganda efforts of the party among peasant populations.

Life

Mariya Shkolnik was born to a poor, Jewish, peasant family in Borovoi-Mlin, a village in Vilna in modern-day Belarus, not far from the town of Smarhon'. Mariya started working at a young age and was not sent to school. Mariya remained illiterate till the age of 13. She did however learn to read from the daughter of a rabbi named Hannah who would often meet with peasant girls in Vilna to teach them progressive politics and economics. Strikes and demonstrations demanding the establishment of a ten-hour working day began in Vilna when Mariya was a teenager. Through an organizer from the

Jewish Bund The General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia ( yi, ‏אַלגעמײנער ייִדישער אַרבעטער־בונד אין ליטע, פּױלן און רוסלאַנד , translit=Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter-bund in Lite, Poy ...

, Mariya joined the revolutionary movement. After organizing in Ashmyany, Mariya felt that her future as a revolutionary would be better in a city. Eventually, she convinced her father to send her to her uncle's apartment in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

. In Odessa she worked in a candy factory and lived with others who shared her political ideology.

Works

Mariya published her memoirs "Life of a Former Terrorist" in 1927 in which she talks about her life from early childhood to emigration.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shkolnik, Mariya 1882 births 1955 deaths Russian revolutionaries Russian socialists Internal exiles from the Russian Empire Russian prisoners sentenced to death Prisoners sentenced to death by Russia Women sentenced to death