Mariia Vetrova

Born in 1870, in Chernigov Province; died Feb. 12 (24), 1897, in St. Petersburg. Russian revolutionary. Daughter of a peasant woman; brought up in an orphanage.

After completing secondary school, Vetrova worked as a teacher (1889-94) in Liubech and Azov. In 1894 she enrolled in the Advanced Courses for Women in St. Petersburg and shortly thereafter became involved in the revolutionary activity of the People’s Will Group. In December 1896 she was arrested following the discovery of the Lakhta printing plant (the settlement of Lakhta, near St. Petersburg). She was incarcerated in the Trubetskoi bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress. She took her own life, burning herself as a protest against the harsh conditions of the prison. Two hectographic proclamations were issued in St. Petersburg in response to her tragic death. Her funeral served as a pretext for a protest demonstration (5,000 to 6,000 students) that was held at Kazan Cathedral on Mar. 4, 1897. The demonstrators attempted to proceed along Nevsky Prospekt but were surrounded by mounted police and dispersed. So-called Vetrova protest demonstrations were also held in Moscow and Kiev.