Sophia Illarionovna Bardina (15 May 1853 Morshansk, Russia - 26 April 1883, Geneva, Switzerland) was a revolutionary from the Russian Empire.

Biography

She was born to a violent father, and turned to her studies for solace. Her family were landowners in

Tver province 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 ...

, so she decided to study agronomy so that she could farm the land, rather than live off peasant labour. Bardina went to Moscow and became friends with

Olga Liubatovich Olga Spiridonovna Lyubatovich (russian: Ольга Спиридоновна Любатович; 1854–1917) was a Russian revolutionary and member of Narodnaya Volya (organization), Narodnaya Volya. Biography Early life Lyubatovich was the dau ...

. Together, they went to study in Zurich., where Bardina was a leading figure in the Fritsche circle of young feminist Russian students, among whom she was known as 'Auntie', "on account of her reliability and diplomatic talents." It was she who introduced Vera Figner and her sister

Lydia Lydia (Lydian language, Lydian: ‎𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the mod ...

to radical political ideas. Vera Figner was later the most famous terrorist at large in Russia. In 1873, the Russian government ordered all women students in Zurich to return home. Bardina returned to Moscow, and in 1874, and obtained a job in a factory, hoping to recruit workers for the revolutionary movement. She was arrested in 1875 and spent two years in prison in Moscow. and was a defendant at the Trial of the 50, alongside

Olga Lyubatovich Olga Spiridonovna Lyubatovich (russian: Ольга Спиридоновна Любатович; 1854–1917) was a Russian revolutionary and member of Narodnaya Volya. Biography Early life Lyubatovich was the daughter of an engineer and a polit ...

, Lydia Figner, Pyotr Alexeyev and others. In court, she delivered a defiant speech that was deleted from the record of the trial. She was sentenced to 10 years hard labour, later commuted to exile in Siberia. She escaped in 1880 and returned to Switzerland, where she fell seriously ill and died by suicide.

Quotes

"Yes, we are anarchists, but, for us, anarchy does not signify disorder, but harmony in all social relations; for us, anarchy is nothing but the negation of oppressions which stifle the development of free societies."Alex Butterworth, ''The World that never was: A true story of dreamers, schemers, anarchists and secret agents'' (Vintage 2011): 171.

References

External links

A
online biography
of Sophia Bardina by John Simkin. The boo

contains a biography of Bardina written in Odia in 1958 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bardina, Sophia 1853 births 1883 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Switzerland Feminists from the Russian Empire Narodniks People from Tambov Revolutionaries from the Russian Empire Suicides by firearm in Switzerland Female revolutionaries Anarchists from the Russian Empire