39 Facts About Maria Nikiforova

Maria Hryhorivna Nikiforova was a Ukrainian anarchist partisan leader who led the Black Guards during the Ukrainian War of Independence, becoming widely renowned as an atamansha.

Maria Nikiforova aimed to assassinate the leaders of the White movement but was caught and executed.

Maria Nikiforova left home at the age of 16, having fallen in love with an "adventurer" who quickly abandoned her in the slums of Oleksandrivsk.

When Maria Nikiforova was captured, she attempted to commit suicide by blowing herself up, but the bomb failed and she was imprisoned.

In 1908, her trial for murder and armed robbery resulted in Maria Nikiforova being sentenced to capital punishment, although this was later commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor, due to her young age.

Maria Nikiforova served part of her sentence in solitary confinement in St Petersburg's Petropavlovsk prison, before being exiled to Siberia in 1910.

Herself an intersex woman, Maria Nikiforova reportedly underwent a medical intervention while being treated.

Maria Nikiforova joined up with the French Foreign Legion and subsequently graduated as an officer from a military college.

Maria Nikiforova served on the Macedonian front before the outbreak of the 1917 Revolution convinced her to quit the front and return home.

When Maria Nikiforova arrived in Petrograd, she found the city in a situation of "dual power", with both the Provisional Government and the local soviet vying for control while the anarchists mostly acted as shock troops of anti-government unrest.

Maria Nikiforova organized and spoke at pro-anarchist rallies in Kronstadt, where she convinced thousands of sailors to participate in an uprising against the Provisional Government.

Maria Nikiforova narrowly escaped the subsequent government crackdown in Petrograd and fled back to her home city of Oleksandrivsk, finally arriving in July 1917 after eight years in exile.

Shortly after arrival, together with the city's 300-strong Anarchist Federation and supported by local factory workers, Maria Nikiforova carried out the expropriation of the local distillery, donating part of the seized money to the local soviet.

Maria Nikiforova soon established a 60-strong anarchist combat detachment and started accumulating armaments procured from attacks on police stations and warehouses, with which she hunted down and executed many of the city's army officers and landlords.

Maria Nikiforova ordered the execution of all officers and disarmed the rank-and-file soldiers before letting them return to their homes.

Maria Nikiforova delivered the captured weapons back to the CDR in Huliaipole, then returned to Oleksandrivsk herself.

In recognition of Maria Nikiforova's help, Makhno named one of his commando brigades "Marusya" after her.

Anarchists from Huliaipole, who had been dispatched to attack Oleksandrivsk and force Maria Nikiforova's release, celebrated upon hearing that their work had already been carried out.

Maria Nikiforova set about establishing armed detachments known as the "Black Guards" in Oleksandrivsk, preparing an organized anarchist response for a conflict that was rapidly escalating into civil war.

Maria Nikiforova responded by allying with the local revolutionary socialists, securing a clandestine shipment of weaponry and the support of the local detachment of the Black Sea Fleet.

When Maria Nikiforova spoke, calling on the "butchers of the Russian workers" to renounce the old ways of Tsarism, many of the Cossacks began to display humility; some openly wept and others maintained contact with the local anarchists.

Maria Nikiforova accused the Revkom of being too tolerant towards the bourgeoisie and having constituted a new ruling class, even threatening to disperse the organ and shoot its chairman, due to her opposition to all forms of government.

Maria Nikiforova subsequently led the Druzhina in an assault by rail, digging in at the suburbs, where they were met by thousands of well-armed troops, who began spreading rumours to the local population that depicted Maria Nikiforova as a sacrilegious bandit leader.

The Druzhina subsequently abandoned their train and reformed as a cavalry detachment, arranging their horses by fur color, with Maria Nikiforova herself riding at the head on a white horse.

Maria Nikiforova immediately set about seizing the estate's goods and redistributing them to the local population, to the annoyance of Matveyev, who she was still formally subordinated to.

Maria Nikiforova called a general meeting in which the principles of unity and discipline were to be discussed, but when Bolsheviks started making complaints about the anarchists, Nikiforova immediately understood the true purpose of the meeting and signalled her partisans to leave, escaping the village on horseback before they could be disarmed.

Maria Nikiforova proposed a mission to rescue captured members of the town's revolutionary committee, but after a number of Red commanders refused to join and news came in of the continued German advance, she abandoned the plan and continued to retreat east.

The Druzhina then moved on to Saratov, where it was again disarmed and Maria Nikiforova herself was again arrested.

Maria Nikiforova was released on bail, posted by Apollon Karelin and Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, and she was reunited with her husband, who had taken a job in the new Soviet government.

Almost immediately following the trial, Maria Nikiforova set out for Huliaipole, now the center of an autonomous anarchist republic known as the Makhnovshchina, as part of an agreement between Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurgent Army and the Ukrainian Bolsheviks.

Maria Nikiforova met Kamenev and his entourage at the train station, and offered to escort them into the city.

Maria Nikiforova sent one group to Siberia, where they were ordered to assassinate Alexander Kolchak, the Supreme Ruler of the Russian State, but they were ultimately unable to locate him and instead decided to join the anti-White partisans.

Maria Nikiforova was charged with having executed counter-revolutionaries, including White officers and the bourgeoisie, while Brzostek was charged simply with having been her husband during these events.

The couple were both found guilty and sentenced to execution by firing squad, with Maria Nikiforova finally breaking down into tears as she said goodbye to her husband, before they were both shot.

Maria Nikiforova agreed to ally with the Bolsheviks under special circumstances and negotiated to have herself appointed to a soviet institution, briefly becoming the Deputy leader of the Oleksandrivsk revkom.

Maria Nikiforova would go on to help establish footholds for Soviet power in several Ukrainian cities, demanding material support from Bolshevik agents in return, which she then used to pursue her anarchist agenda.

Maria Nikiforova's legacy created an opportunity for copycats, with a number of partisan women adopting the name of "Marusya" as a pseudonym throughout the remainder of the Ukrainian War of Independence.

Maria Nikiforova's biography was largely neglected by Soviet historiography, which focused its women's history largely on female Bolsheviks, only ever referencing Maria Nikiforova briefly and using negative depictions.

Maria Nikiforova has likewise been largely neglected in Ukrainian historiography, as her staunch anti-nationalist positions directly contradicted the historical narratives of Ukrainian nationalism, as well as anarchist historiography, which has focused most of its attention on Nestor Makhno.