Broydo, Eva Lvovna

Young years, family and education

Hava Leibovna Gordon was born on November 7, 1876 in the town of Sventsyany, Sventsyansky district, Vilna province of the Russian Empire ^{[1] [2] [3]} . Originally from a once rich, but subsequently impoverished Jewish bourgeois family ^{[4] [1]} . Her father was a Talmudic scholar , and her mother was engaged in the sale of timber ^[4] .

She was educated in a Jewish primary school, at the age of 15 she graduated from four classes of a gymnasium in Dorpat . She graduated from the Dorpat Pharmaceutical Institute and entered a pharmacy in Dvinsk ^{[4] [5] [6]} . In 1912 she graduated, passing the exam at the University of Kazan as an assistant pharmacist ^{[1] [7] [6] [5]} .

Revolutionary Activities

In 1893-1896 she lived in Riga , where she revolved in teacher circles. In 1895 and 1896 she traveled to Berlin , where she met with the Social Democrats and the Social Democratic literature: the books of Karl Kautsky, “The History of Socialism” and August Bebel, “Woman and Socialism”, and as a result became a convinced socialist ^{[1] [5] [ 4]} . In the same year she joined the revolutionary movement ^[3] . In 1896-1898 she was married to Abram Edelman ^{[1] [4]} . In marriage, the daughter of Alexander was born (Edelman; later - Adasinskaya) ^[1] . By their own admission, these were “three years of private hell” and “the darkest years of all life”, which were brightened up by a society of men and women - colleagues in a pharmacy with full board and 35 rubles per month ^{[6] [8]} .

In 1899 she moved to St. Petersburg , where she became close friends with a group of Semyonnik workers , and then joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) , subsequently joining its Menshevik faction ^{[1] [2] [3] [5] [ 4]} . For some time she worked in the Iskra newspaper (party nickname : Natasha; literary pseudonyms : E. Bronskaya, E. Lvova, Berta Abramovna Vygotskaya, Eva Lvovna Bronskaya) ^{[1] [9]} . In 1899-1900, Bebel translated the book Woman and Socialism into Russian , but the circulation was destroyed by censorship ^{[5] [4]} . In the early summer of 1900 she participated in the organization of the Socialist group, which later merged with the St. Petersburg group of the Worker Banner. She took part in the creation of the Social Democratic Work Library group, was a member of the editorial staff of its publications, and was the main link between the "library" and the "Socialist" ^[5] . On the night of January 30, 1901 she was arrested in the so-called “working library case” - for creating an illegal mobile library , distributing books about the labor movement abroad and about trade unions , as well as writing works on the “ women's issue ” ^{[1] [10 ] ] [4]} . Having fallen ill while being kept in the Pretrial Detention House , on August 8, 1901 she was released on bail and put under police supervision in Sventsiany, where she formed and led a group of Social Democrats. Arrested for unauthorized absence in Vilna for literature, from November 11, 1901 until January 2, 1902, she was in the Sventsian prison ^[5] . After a 15-month prison sentence, she was administratively exiled to Eastern Siberia for 5 years ^{[1] [2] [4]} .

In 1902, she married Mark Broydo , a comrade in revolutionary struggle; married during shipment to the prison chapel ^{[11] [4] [8]} . The daughter and the son ^[1] were born in the marriage.

In May 1902, together with her husband, she was sent to Kirensk , and in 1903 to Yakutsk ^[5] . During her stay in Yakutsk she organized literacy circles for workers; one of Broydo’s students was Mikhail Kalinin , who learned to read and write from her ^[10] . Periodically she worked as a pharmacist, including at a local dispensary in Yakutsk ^[12] . She took an active part in the armed speech of political exiles - the so-called " Yakut protest " or "Romanov case", helped comrades with the delivery of weapons and provisions from the will. The trial of the Romanovites allowed her to serve her sentence at the place of her husband’s imprisonment, who was sent to the Alexander Prison . After her husband’s flight, she was temporarily sent to Verkholensk district of Irkutsk province , but in the winter of 1904 she fled from exile on the road, having stayed in it for a total of two years. Emigrated to England , visited several European countries . In 1905, influenced by the events of January 9, she went to Geneva , from where she arrived in Baku in March 1905, where she became one of the leaders of the Shendrikov - Menshevik Organization of Balakhani and Bibieibat Workers (later the Union of Baku Workers), published a weekly on . Despite the patriarchal nature of local society, she enjoyed authority in the ranks of workers in the Baku oil fields . During the revolution of 1905-1907, she joined the " liquidators ". In 1906 she returned to Petersburg, where she participated in the activities of the Menshevik organization, created clubs for factory workers, wrote brochures, translated works of German Social Democrats ^{[1] [2] [5] [4] [13]} .

In 1912, at the August conference of the RSDLP in Vienna, she was elected a member and secretary of the Organizing Committee of the Mensheviks (equivalent to the Central Committee); started working in the Menshevik newspaper Luch; published legally. In the same year, participated in the organization of elections to the State Duma of the IV convocation . In 1912-1914 she was a member of the St. Petersburg "Initiative Group" of the Mensheviks, at the meeting of which in January 1913 she was arrested. In 1915, exiled to Siberia ^{[1] [2] [3] [5]} . Sent to the Yenisei province , namely Minusinsk , and then to Kirensk ^{[14] [5]} . Dangled from link to link on the Trans-Siberian Railway with young children ^[14] . It was in Minusinsk that she joined the group of Menshevik-internationalists ^{[1] [2] [3] [5]} . The members of the "Minusinsk group" led by Fedor Dan in their attitude to the war held internationalism , which manifested itself in a collective protest against the letter of Georgy Plekhanov to the State Duma deputy Andrei Buryanov and the patriotic appeal contained in him for the Social Democratic faction to vote for military loans ^{[5] [15]} .

In the spring of 1917 she returned to Petersburg, where she took up political work among women and wrote for the Menshevik press ^[4] . After the February Revolution, she became a delegate to the May All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP. On August 25 at the Unity Party Congress, she was elected to the bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (o ) from internationalists, then became his secretary. On August 30, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, she was approved as a member of the editorial board of the newspaper Golos Rabotnitsy ^{[1] [5]} . Being a representative of a generation of women revolutionaries who enjoyed the support of men and their comrades in the struggle for gender equality , Broydo was engaged in any work - from sewing dresses to translations ^[10] . At that time, a joint group of Mensheviks with a "women's department" led by Broydo was the first of all parties to call for a conference of Petrograd workers in October 1917. The conference adopted a resolution on the formation of special commissions on agitation and organization of women, but things did not go beyond intentions ^[16] . In the book "Woman Worker", published in 1917 in Petrograd , Broydo expressed her life and political worldview, appealing to working women with an appeal ^[1] :

She condemned the October Revolution and against the recognition of the Bolshevik government . However, in late October and early November 1917, she supported negotiations with the Bolsheviks on the creation of a “ homogeneous socialist government ” ^{[1] [2] [3]} . Once Broydo performed with Vladimir Lenin at the Baltic factory . She did not like oratory , but still came to support the Menshevik in the fight against the candidate from the Bolsheviks. Grigory Zinoviev was supposed to speak, but Lenin unexpectedly arrived, and Broydo defeated him by holding a Menshevik candidate during the vote ^[10] . In December 1918, Broydo was again elected to the Menshevik Central Committee and became its secretary ^{[1] [2] [3]} . After the Bolshevik government and the central committees of all the main political parties moved to Moscow, in 1918, Broydo also settled there with his family ^[17] . At that time, through the society of former political prisoners, she closely communicated with Vera Figner , as well as with Vera Zasulich , her fellow worker at Iskra ^[10] .

Emigration

In 1920, Broydo left Russia together with her daughter Vera through Poland to Vienna to find her husband ^{[10] [17]} . It is worth noting that she did not inform the party leadership about her departure ^[18] . Rafail Abramovich , David Dalin and Yuli Martov were already abroad, while a significant part of the Menshevik Central Committee was arrested, namely Fedor Dan , Sergey Yezhov , Boris Nikolaevsky , Arthur Pleskov and Fedor Cherevanin ^[15] . Having settled in Berlin and becoming a member of the Overseas Delegation, Broydo began working as secretary of the expatriate Menshevik magazine Socialist Herald ^{[1] [15] [4]} . In the early 1920s, her memoirs were published in the Berlin journal Chronicle of the Revolution ^[1] . At that time, she also translated Herbert Wells' Soul Caches into Russian ^[19] .

Repression and Execution

In November 1927, with the help of the Latvian Social Democrats, Broydo single-handedly arrived in the Soviet Union at the initiative of Dan for illegal work. Upon arrival in Moscow, she tried to arrange the distribution of the Socialist Herald, other brochures and leaflets delivered to the USSR by diplomatic couriers of the Latvian Embassy , associated with the Latvian Social Democratic Party , employees of the Pravda and Izvestia printing houses, as well as foreign business travelers and smugglers. I went to Sormovo , Kharkov , met with the local Mensheviks and party veterans who survived after the defeat of the organization. Arriving in Baku to resume the activities of the underground group, she stopped at the apartment of the exiled Menshevik A. Ya. Rogachevsky, where she made an appointment for her local comrades-in-arms. On April 22, 1928, she was arrested on her way back right in the train carriage, and the next four other participants in the meeting were arrested ^{[1] [2] [3] [7] [20] [4] [21]} . At that time, there was a Menshevik underground in Soviet Russia, after Broydo’s arrest, the second party emissary from abroad, Mikhail Brownstein , was also arrested ^[22] . During the investigation, which was first conducted in Baku, and then in Moscow, it initially appeared under a false name and passport, but subsequently admitted that she was Eva Broydo, and tried to take all the sane “Baku group” upon herself. Broydo also stated that she had divorced her husband, in which one could consider the intention to protect her family ^[20] . Despite the criminal prosecution, in 1928 her memoir was published “In the ranks of the RSDLP” ^[1] , and Breudo’s biography was placed in the dictionary “ Figures of the Revolutionary Movement in Russia ”, in which it was noted that she “actively fought against by the Soviet government ” ^[5] .

On June 28, 1928, the OGPU Board sentenced her to 3 years in prison under the " anti-Soviet " 58th article of the RSFSR Criminal Code . Until 1930, she was kept in solitary confinement in the Suzdal political isolator , where she corresponded with relatives who sent her money and books. In April 1931 she was sentenced to 5 years of exile in Tashkent . In November 1935 she was deported to Oirot-Turu , on the Soviet-Mongolian border . July 4, 1937 was again arrested . On March 21, 1939, the Military Tribunal of the Moscow Military District sentenced Broydo to 20 years in prison. On September 13, 1941, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR , following the results of the next consideration of the cases of prisoners in the Oryol prison, sentenced Broydo to execution . Shot on September 15 during the hasty evacuation of the Oryol Central ^{[1] [2] [3] [7] [20] [4] [10]} .

She was posthumously rehabilitated ^[1] . Broydo's daughter found out what happened to her mother only after the fall of Soviet power and the opening of archives ^[17] . The Broydo archive, including biographical materials and the interrogation protocol of 1938, is stored in the Archive — the Library of the St. Petersburg Memorial Scientific Information Center ^[23] .

• Eva Lvovna Broydo (neopr.) . National Political Encyclopedia .