Iakov VasilEvich Stefanovich

Born Nov. 28 (Dec. 10), 1854, in the village of Deptivtsy, in what is now Konotop Raion, Sumy Oblast; died Apr. 1 (14), 1915, in the village of Krasnyi Koliadin, Talalaevka Raion, Chernigov Oblast. Russian revolutionary; Narodnik (Populist).

The son of a priest, Stefanovich studied at the University of Kiev. He joined the revolutionary movement in 1873 and was a member of the Kiev branch of the Chaikovskii circle. He conducted revolutionary work among the people and belonged to a group of southern insurgents. The chief organizer of the Chigirin conspiracy in 1877, Stefanovich was arrested in September 1877 but fled abroad in May 1878.

Stefanovich returned to Russia in 1879 and joined the Narodnik organization Zemlia i Volia (Land and Liberty); after the organization’s breakup in the autumn of the same year, he became one of the leaders of the Black Partition. He emigrated in January 1880. He returned to Russia in November 1881, joined the People’s Will, and became a member of its executive committee. He was arrested for the second time in February 1882 and was sentenced to eight years at hard labor at the Trial of the 17. He served his term at the Kara Penal Colony and was deported to Yakutia in 1890. In 1905 he moved to Chernigov Oblast and withdrew from political activity.