New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-18
The Women Of the Russian
Revolution Vera Figner
Bv Nine. Marie de Perrot

Figner would tell the girl who 90 ~.
IDENTIFY listened. 81 have only nv m.
left, and that belongs to my conntrv.
Her soul rebelled bitterly sgaip,,
the means autocracy used to mu,,l.
liberty. She suffered intensely a. IN.
wholesale imprisonment Of comras.,
to whom she was devoted. Sophia Bar.
dina, her dearest friend. even her ou,
sister, we're languishing in bondaY,
For a time, when she was thorouybl,
discouraged with the little progrs,,
which had crowned her work suor,
the people, Vera Figner put herself A
the head Of an organization which prc.
vided the political prisoners with
clothes, money and food.
Most of them were deprived Of sry
kind Of intercourse with relations or
friends. The society was thus great
boon to them. But it was only with
the utmost difficulty and by dint Of
sheer ingenuity that those who had
made the prisoners their special care
could penetrate to them. Every kind
Of subterfuge and disguise had to be
adopted, turkeys bought, the police
bribed and persuaded, even threats
used at times. But Vera was q woman,
and as such ingenious in finding
means. The charm Of her manners,
moreover. carried her long way ard
softencd the hearts Of the sternest In
her favor.
Stored Dynamite
In Her Home
When I met her first in 1877 she had
inst returned with my friend, Olga
Avramov, from Zurich or Berne, where
they both had been studying medicine
always in the peoples cause. 1t was
in the same year that she accompanied
ber sister. who had been released from
prison. to the boundary post where the
convicts part from relations and
friends, the place where SO many 'F's'
edies have been enacted.
Soon afterward we spent few weeks
a. Odessa with common friends, and |
bavs no doubt that she was at that tine
~ sting the cause of the Terrorists her
own. was told few months later
that dynamite to blow up the train IN
which Alexander II travelled was stored
in her house at the time when we were
having the most searching converse
t;ons az TO how to deliver Russia. She
had struck me as much more deter
mined. more bent upon her airi-
though she did not mention it-tron
which nothing could make her dewaa
Still. she had remained quiet and w.
ostentatious, never speaking OF ms
work she had undertaken unless tact
fully led to do so.
I remember what struck me at hm
in Vera Figner, as a girl, was that, u
like most Russian revolutionaries, she
bestowed great care upon her persons!
appearance; she was so calm and self
possessed, but also always tiree a
quatre epingles. 1t must have been the
magnetic power which she undoubtedly
possessed, or perhaps the harmony OF
her Utmost self, which manifested Itself
in her whole bearing and appearance,
but often heard in later years that she
was irresistible and had been one Of
the strongest personalities in the
Cause. Her mirth was that Of child
and truth pervaded her.
There was after the assassination Of
Alexander II kind Of pause, and his
son and successor, Alexander ILL.,
seemed for a brief period favorable 70
the Revolutionaries. lie even. tried to
come to some understanding with them,
believing them much stronger than the!
really were, not knowing that the Rev
dictionary party was almost annihi'
lated. Hundreds were dying in prisons;
others were on their way to Siberia
Sophia Perovskaya, Vers's cor1rade IN
the Terrorist organization Of the Ni'
rodnaia volya (the Peoples Wild, hsd
died on the scafold, and with her those
implicated in the assassination.
Released and
Sent to Siberia
The Cars emisssries found vera
Figner hiding in Kkarkof. Ihey
offered her a constitution for Ru'slS'
She demanded that TchernichevsE
should be set free as q condition o. 'n'
party ceasing hostilities. But, once 'h'
Gar was crowned, the former conan
ton was not fulfilled.
Vera Figner was finally betrayed 0y
co-worker in the Peoples Will
certain Degaiev, when arrested and pu'
under torture, sold her 70 Colohe
. L