Born: 25 January 1844, Belarus
Died: 12 September 1934
Country most active: Russia
Also known as: Yekaterina Konstantinovna Breshko-Breshkovskaya, Екатерина Константиновна Брешко-Брешковская, Catherine Breshkovsky
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Russian heroine. She was the daughter of a noble who held hundreds of serfs, and her girlhood was spent in luxury. At the age of eighteen she left her home and began to speak and write against the iniquities and tyranny of the Czar’s government. She was soon sent into exile to a Siberian hamlet north of the Arctic Circle where she remained sixteen years, and was then released, but her speeches against autocracy periodically sent her back to exile. Many times she escaped, many marvellous adventures were attributed to her, and she became known to the people as the “Little Grandmother of the Russian Revolution.”
During one of her free periods, in 1905, she came to the United States and collected more than $10,000 for the revolutionary cause, but the following year she was again a prisoner, having been sentenced, without formal charges, to perpetu exile. When at last set free by the great revolution of 1917, she had spent forty-four of her seventy-three years as a political prisoner. Her journey from Irkutsk was a triumphal progress, and when she reached Petrograd she was welcomed by an enormous, enthusiastic gathering. After her first words of thanks that the people had freed themselves from Czardom, she made an appeal that her countrymen continue faithful to the great nations who were her allies, and continue the war of freedom; she further warned Russia not to abuse the gift of democracy which had been bestowed by fate. She insistently repeated her appeal and warning as the Soldiers’ and Workmen’s delegates grew into power, and her friends hid her away, fearing for her safety. Later she escaped, and came to the United States, arriving in January, 1919, where she at once began her work of raising funds for the benefit of four million Russian orphans, and soon after returned to her native country, continuing her labors for the poor children.