Maria Spiridonova
1884 – 1941 Russian Leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries
The Left SR leader who first allied with then rose against the Bolsheviks.
- Religion
- Russian Orthodox background; a secular revolutionary.
- Affiliations
- Left Socialist Revolutionaries; briefly allied with the Bolsheviks, then led the 1918 uprising against them.
Spiridonova became famous as a young woman for assassinating a tsarist official and enduring years of Siberian prison. She led the Left SRs, who joined the first Soviet government before breaking with the Bolsheviks over the German peace and grain seizures. Imprisoned for decades, she was shot on Stalin's order in 1941.
Connections
- rival of Joseph Stalin — Executed on his order during the 1941 Medvedev Forest massacre.
- associate of Victor Chernov — Fellow Socialist Revolutionary before the party split over the Bolsheviks.
- rival of Vladimir Lenin — Her Left SRs allied with then rebelled against his government in 1918.