Vera Ivanovna Zasulich

Russian revolutionary, anarchist and then a Marxist and Menshevik, born. Involved with radical politics as a student, she was arrested and imprisoned in May 1869 for her contacts with the nihilist Sergey Nechayev (Серге́й Неча́ев). Released in 1873, in Kharkov she joined the Southern Rebels (Южные бунтари), a revolutionary group of Mikhail Bakunin's anarchist supporters, becoming a respected leader of the movement. On Feb. 5 1878, Zasulich attempts to shoot General Fedor Trepov (Фёдор Тре́пов), prefect of police of St Petersburg, in revenge for his having ordered the flogging of Alexei Bogolyubov (Алексей Боголюбов), a political prisoner who had refused to remove his cap in his presence. Trepov was wounded and Zasulich acquitted at her trial after having effectively put Trepov on trial. Zasulich fled to Switzerland to avoid further arrest and there converted to Marxism, later becoming involved in the founding of 'Iskra' (Искры) and the Mensheviks, supporting the Russian war effort during WWI and Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917, considering it to be a counter-revolutionary coup. Vera Zasulich died of pneumonia on May 8, 1919 in Petrograd. 'Vera, or the Nihilists' (1880) by Oscar Wilde is allegedly based upon the story of her life.