Fanya Baron
Fanya Baron | |
|---|---|
 Fanya Baron in pre-revolutionary Russia | |
| Born | Freida Nisanovna Greck 1887 |
| Died | September 30, 1921 |
| Cause of death | Executed |
| Spouse | Aron Baron |
| Children | Theodore Baron |
| Parent(s) | Nathan Grefenson and Chasse Plutzky |
Fanya Anisimovna Baron (Russian: Фа́ня Ани́симовна Ба́рон) (1887 – September 30, 1921) was a Russian anarchist revolutionary who lived in America from 1911[1] to 1917[2] when she returned to her homeland to build a post-revolutionary society. In 1921, she was executed by the Cheka.
Biography[edit]
After the February Revolution in June 1917, Baron moved to Ukraine, where she joined the Confederation of Anarchists of Ukraine “Nabat”, and started to work in Kiev, Kharkov and other Ukrainian cities.[3] The Nabat confederation had ties with the Makhno movement. Several Nabat members (among them Fanya's husband Aron Baron, Voline and Peter Arshinov) were active in the Cultural-Educational Section of the Makhno movement.
In early July 1921, Fanya escaped from Ryazan prison.[3][4] She planned to help her husband Aron Baron escape from prison in Moscow. Aaron's brother, Semion, a Bolshevik communist, offered to help with the plan.[4] Later the same year, they were found out, with Fanya being arrested by the Cheka, and Semion Baron being executed on the spot. [4]
Fanya Baron was among 13 anarchists held at Taganka prison without charges. In July 1921, they went on hunger strike, attracting the attention of visiting French, Spanish and Russian syndicalists who argued for their release. Leon Trotsky remarked at the time "We do not imprison the real anarchists, but criminals and bandits who cover themselves by claiming to be anarchists".[5] Fanya was shot by the Cheka on 30 September 1921. Aron was spared execution[4] until 1937, after spending 17 years in numerous prisons and exiles.
Emma Goldman wrote about the execution of Fanya Baron in My Further Disillusionment in Russia:
Fanya Baron was of the type of Russian woman completely consecrated to the cause of humanity. While in America she gave all her spare time and a goodly part of her meagre earnings in a factory to further Anarchist propaganda. Years afterward, when I met her in Kharkov, her zeal and devotion had become intensified by the persecution she and her comrades had endured since their return to Russia. She possessed unbounded courage and a generous spirit. She could perform the most difficult task and deprive herself of the last piece of bread with grace and utter selflessness. Under harrowing conditions of travel, Fanya went up and down the Ukraina to spread the Nabat, organize the workers and peasants, or bring help and succour to her imprisoned comrades. She was one of the victims of the Butyrki raid, when she had been dragged by her hair and badly beaten. After her escape from the Ryazan prison she tramped on foot to Moscow, where she arrived in tatters and penniless. It was her desperate condition which drove her to seek shelter with her husband's brother, at whose house she was discovered by the Tcheka. This big-hearted woman, who had served the Social Revolution all her life, was done to, death by the people who pretended to be the advance guard of revolution. Not content with the crime of killing Fanya Baron, the Soviet Government put the stigma of banditism on the memory of their dead victim.[3]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Radical Women: The Haymarket Tradition - By Carolyn Ashbaugh". February 4, 2012. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
- ^ "chile1 «". Zabalaza.net. December 8, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
- ^ a b c Goldman, Emma (1924). "Chapter VII: Persecution of Anarchists". My Further Disillusionment in Russia. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
- ^ a b c d Goldman, Emma. Chapter 52, Continued, pp. 899-927. Living My Life. Anarchy Archives. Retrieved November 21, 2008.
- ^ Voline, 1947
Sources[edit]
- Avrich, Paul (Editor), 1973, The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution
- Berkman, Alexander, 1922, The Bolshevik Myth
- Goldman, Emma My Further Dissillusionment in Russia
- Goldman, Emma Living my Life (Volume 2)
- Serge, Victor, July, August 1920, The Anarchists and the Experience of the Russian Revolution
- Voline, The Unknown Revolution, Black Rose Books 1974 (originally published 1947)
- Woodcock, George, 1944, Socialism from Below: A History of Anarchism