Vera Broido (1907–2004) was a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n-born writer and a chronicler of the Russian Revolution, as one who grew up through it and lost her mother to its aftermath.

Life

Vera Broido was born in St Petersburg in 1907, the daughter of two Russian Jewish revolutionaries. In 1914, when Broido was seven, her family was plunged into a life of isolation and fear when her mother, prominent Menshevik

Eva Broido Eva L'vovna Gordon Broido (7 November 1876 – 15 September 1941) was a Russian revolutionary and educationalist. In 1917 she was, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Menshevik Party. Life Eva L'vovna was born in Švenčionys on 7 Novembe ...

, was sentenced to exile in Western Siberia for taking a stand against the war. The memory of her stay in Siberia and her experiences there never left her. Broido left the wastes of Siberia for

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, thanks to the efforts of her father Mark. She never saw her mother after Eva returned voluntarily to the Social-Democratic Party underground in Russia in 1927, and was later told that she had been executed. During her time in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

in the 1920s, Broido met avant garde artist and

Dadaist Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

turned society photographer

Raoul Hausmann Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971) was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry, and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on ...

and became his lover and muse, living in a ménage à trois with him and his wife Hedwig in the fashionable

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Prussia, it is best known for Charlottenburg Palace, the ...

district of Berlin between 1928 and 1934. In 1941, Broido married British historian

Norman Cohn Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA (12 January 1915 – 31 July 2007) was a British academic, historian and writer who spent 14 years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex. Life Cohn was born in London, to ...

. They had one son

Nik Cohn Nik Cohn, also written Nick Cohn (born 1946), is a British writer. Life and career Cohn was born in London, England and brought up in Derry in Northern Ireland, the son of historian Norman Cohn and Russian writer Vera Broido. An incomer to th ...

, who went on to become a writer. When she came to the UK with her new husband, Broido carved a niche for herself among Russian emigres and went on to write books on women in revolution, the Mensheviks and her strongest work, an autobiography looking back on her childhood in Russia and her journey through Europe to the UK. After a stay in Derry in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, she later made her home in London and then in Wood End, Hertfordshire. She died peacefully in 2004 at the age of 97 in Stevenage, England.

Works

* ''Apostles into Terrorists: Women and the Revolutionary Movement in the Russia of Alexander II''. Maurice Temple Smith Ltd 1978 * ''Lenin and the Mensheviks: The Persecution of Socialists under Bolshevism''. Westview Press, 1987. * ''Daughter of the Revolution: A Russian Girlhood Remembered''. Constable, 1999. As translator & editor: * Broido, Eva L’vovna. ''Memoirs of a Revolutionary''. Oxford University Press, 1967.

References

External links

My Century: The story of the 20th Century by those who made it. In Exile: Five people recall their experiences of exile.
BBC World Service

c. 1930 {{DEFAULTSORT:Broido, Vera 1907 births 2004 deaths Writers from Saint Petersburg Russian Jews Russian memoirists People from Ibiza Women memoirists Russian women writers 20th-century British historians 20th-century women writers 20th-century Russian writers 20th-century memoirists 20th-century Russian women Soviet emigrants to Germany German emigrants to the United Kingdom