Metadata: V. I. Zasulich
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- The Plekhanov House
- Holding institution (official language):
- Дом Плеханова
- Postal address:
- 190005, St. Petersburg, ul. 4-ia Krasnoarmeiskaia, 1/33
- Phone number:
- (812) 316-74-11
- Web address:
- http://www.nlr.ru/coll/housePleh/
- Email:
- domplekh@nlr.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 1098
- Title:
- V. I. Zasulich
- Title (official language):
- ЗАСУЛИЧ В. И.
- Creator/accumulator:
- V. I. Zasulich
- Date(s):
- 1878/1931
- Language:
- Russian
- English
- Extent:
- 214 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Housed in the fonds are Vera Zasulich’s personal documents and her passport; invitations to sessions and meetings; agendas from various organisations; and materials on her funeral; original drafts, variants, and printed editions of such works as the book Voltaire (1893), “Revolutionaries from the Bourgeois Milieu” (1921), etc.; reminiscences about S. Kravchinskii, D. Klements, and S. Nechaev; letters from S. A. Vengerov, L. G. Deich, M. P. Dragomanov, E. D. Kuskova, and Iu. O. Martov (Tsederbaum); reminiscences on Vera Zasulich; and works by G. V. Plekhanov and materials used in writing them. Documents pertaining to the history of Jews in Russia include Vera Zasulich’s invitation to take part in an all-Russian conference of the Bund, indicating the time and place it was to be held (1917); Vera Zasulich’s article “On Anti-Semitism,” which contains her comprehensive answer to the questionnaire drawn up by Maxim Gorky, Fedor Sologub, and Leonid Andreev during the First World War aimed at researching the causes of anti-Semitism; the article describes the anti-Jewish pogroms of the 1870s and early 1880s and compares them with those of the early 20th c.; it also contains considerations on the Bund, the Dreyfus affair, etc. Also housed in the fonds is a letter from the social democrat I. S. Bliumenfel’d giving detail on his life abroad, and mentioning the revolutionary, political figure, and Menshevik theoretician Fedor Il’ich Dan (1909-12); and a typescript of Vera Zasulich’s story “The Little Jewish Girl,” written in Geneva; in the form of a first-person memoir, this relates the fate of the young Jewish woman L. El’iashevich, who experiences run-ins with manifestations of anti-Semitism in the Russian Empire (1882-84).
- Archival history:
- The Plekhanov House is a structural subdivision (department) of the National Library of Russia and constitutes a research centre for the study of the history of the Russian and international revolutionary and social movements, and the history of culture and education. The core of its fonds consists of the archive and library of Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov (1856-1918), the philosopher, public commentator, and prominent figure in the revolutionary movement who was one of the founders of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDRP). In 1925 these materials were turned over to the Committee to Memorialize G. V. Plekhanov by his widow R. M. Plekhanova (nee Bograd) on the condition that they always be stored together as a unit. The grand opening of the Plekhanov House took place 11 June 1929 at the conference hall of the former Free Economic Society. In accordance with the conditions of the agreement between the committee and the State Public Library board, G. V. Plekhanov’s heritage had to be housed in a separate building with a particular staff; this became a standalone branch of the library. The library board accepted the proposed conditions, and by the spring of 1931 the construction and furnishing of the new building of the Plekhanov House were complete. For the final twenty years of her life R. M. Plekhanova served as director of the Plekhanov House and was involved in organising its fonds; along with her husband’s archive, these housed documents of members of the Liberation of Labor group and their comrades and fellow-thinkers, and numerous other materials. Simultaneously with the processing of the fonds in 1929-30, catalogues and card files began to be organised, including for the Plekhanov library; and materials connected with Plekhanov’s life and activities were collected. Analysis of Plekhanov’s archive, its scholarly inventorying and attribution, and the transcription of markings in it, is currently ongoing.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Vera Ivanovna Zasulich (1849-1919) was a figure in the Russian and international socialist movement, a terrorist, and writer; and one of the founders of the Liberation of Labor group. Having graduated from a boarding school in Moscow in 1867, she served as a clerk for the justice of the peace in the city of Serpukhov. In 1868 she moved to St. Petersburg, where she became acquainted with populist revolutionaries, but was soon arrested and exiled until 1873. After her exile, she lived in Khar’kov and took part in the “young insurgents’” circle; in 1875 she went underground. In January 1878 she made an attempt on the life of St. Petersburg Governor F. F. Trepov due to the latter’s order of the flogging of a political prisoner. After being acquitted by a jury, she went abroad. When she returned in 1879, she took an active part in the Black Redistribution group. She emigrated once more in 1880; abroad, together with G. V. Plekhanov, L. G. Deich, P. B. Aksel’rod, and V. N. Ignatov, she studied Marxist literature and became familiar with the European workers’ movement; she translated several works by Marx and Engels into Russian, and wrote works on history, politics, and literary criticism. She was one of the organisers of the social-democratic group Liberation of Labor in 1883. For most of her time away from Russia, Vera Zasulich lived in Geneva, Clarens, and Zurich; in 1894-97, she lived in London, where she became a friend of Friedrich Engels, who had a great deal of respect and affection for her. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, she illegally returned to Russia, where, on a mission from the Liberation of Labor group, she met with V. I. Lenin. She became a member of the editorial boards of the newspapers Iskra and Zaria, and had several articles published in them. In late 1905 she returned to Russia; after the defeat of the 1905 Revolution, she temporarily withdrew from active participation in political and public life, engaging in translations. During the First World War she took a defensist position, making speeches at demonstrations and writing newspaper articles. In April 1917 she signed an appeal to the citizens of Russia asking that they support the Provisional Government, which had become a coalition one; and she was nominated as a candidate for Constituent Assembly member. She considered the October Revolution of 1917 to be a counterrevolutionary coup that had interrupted the normal political development of bourgeois-democratic revolution, and she saw the Soviet system created by the Bolsheviks as a mirror image of the tsarist regime.
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes a single inventory systematised by structure.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary