The Defiant Life of Vera Figner: Surviving the Russian Revolution (Encounters: Explorations in Folklore and Ethnomusicology)

This Engaging Biography Tells The Dramatic Story Of A Russian Noblewoman Turned Revolutionary Terrorist. Born In 1852 In The Last Years Of Serfdom, Vera Figner Came Of Age As Imperial Russian Society Was Being Rocked By The Massive Upheaval That Culminated In The Bolshevik Revolution Of 1917. At First A Champion Of Populist Causes And Women's Higher Education, Figner Later Became A Leader Of The Terrorist Party The People's Will And Was An Accomplice In The Assassination Of Tsar Alexander Ii In 1881. Drawing On Extensive Archival Research And Careful Reading Of Figner's Copious Memoirs, Lynne Ann Hartnett Reveals How Figner Survived The Bolshevik Revolution And Stalin's Great Purges And Died A Lionized Revolutionary Legend As The Nazis Bore Down On Moscow In 1942. In The Twilight Of A Fading Age -- Age Of Consciousness -- Pioneers Diverted -- Town And Country -- The Tsar's Death Sentence -- Revolutionary Iconography -- Transformation -- Life And Death -- Resurrection In Exile -- An Old Revolutionary In A New Revolution -- Revolutionary Survivor. Lynne Ann Hartnett. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. A “riveting” biography of a Russian noblewoman turned revolutionary terrorist and accomplice in the assassination of a tsar (The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review). Born in 1852 in the last years of serfdom, Vera Figner came of age as Imperial Russian society was being rocked by the massive upheaval that culminated in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. At first a champion of populist causes and women’s higher education, which she herself pursued as a medical student in Zurich, Figner later became a leader of the terrorist party the People’s Will—and was an accomplice in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. Drawing on extensive archival research and careful reading of Figner’s copious memoirs, Lynne Ann Hartnett reveals how Figner survived the Bolshevik revolution and Stalin's Great Purges and died a lionized revolutionary legend as the Nazis bore down on Moscow in 1942. Born in 1852 in the last years of serfdom, Vera Figner came of age as Imperial Russian society was being rocked by the massive upheaval that culminated in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. At first champion of populist causes and champion of women's higher education, Figner later became a leader of the terrorist party The People's Will. Biography of Vera Figner (1852-1942), a Russian revolutionary. Drawing on archival research and reading of Figner's memoirs, the author reveals how Figner survived the Bolshevik revolution and Stalin's Great Purges