“Marusya Nikiforova”

She was born in Oleksandrivsk (Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine) in 1885. At the age of 16, Maria left her home and started working —at the distillery, where she washed bottles and where she joined the anarcho-communist movement. From the age of 17, Maria participated in expropriations, including bank robberies. The most famous terrorist acts involving her participation were the explosions at Libman's Cafe and haberdashery shop in Odessa as well as the detonation of a first-class car on a train near Nikopol. One of the bombs dropped by Marusya killed the plant's administrator. In 1907, in Kherson, Maria's trail was attacked by police. In order to avoid arrest, she tried to commit a suicide by detonating a bomb. Nevertheless, the explosion did not happen, and Maria appeared in court. She was charged with a number of expropriations and four murders. Maria was sentenced to death, yet her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

In 1910, Maria was sent from the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg to Siberia, from where she fled to Japan. Later Nikiforova moved to the United States, from there to Spain and eventually she settled in Paris. There she got married to a Polish anarchist Witold Brzostek. In 1913 Nikiforova became known as Marusya. During the First World War, together with Peter Kropotkin she took an anti-German position. After having graduated from the French officer school, Maria fought on the Macedonian front.

Since the beginning of the revolution, Nikiforova returned to Petrograd, where he organized anarchist congresses in Kronstadt. In summer 1917, Marusya returned to her hometown of Olexandrivsk, where in June the Oleksandrivsk Federation of Anarchists was reorganized with anarcho-communist agenda, intrinsic to the city. The appearance of a well-known figure in the socialist movement, Nikiforova's oratory skills, and her revolutionary image gained supporters to the federation among the city workers. After Marusya had successfully expropriated one million rubles from the cashier of the local breeder Badowski, she finally became an informal leader of the whole organization. Marusya organizes units of the Black Guard in Oleksandrivsk which terrorize local authorities, army officers and the bourgeoisie. Nikiforova's goal was the complete destruction of a state power in the city. At that time, Maria was influenced by the ideas of Apollon Karelin, who advocated an alliance with the Bolsheviks in order to achieve the goals of anarchism. However, Marusya agreed to cooperate with the Bolsheviks only in the military aspect, ignoring completely any kind of political cooperation. In August 1917, Marusya seized the arsenal in the town of Orikhiv, disarmed the garrison, shot the officers, and handed over the weapons to the Makhno supporters. Anarchism was the basis for allied relations with Nestor Makhno, while later on Marusya began to accuse him of ignoring the ideas of anarchism.

In December 1917, the Black Guard of Marusya helped Soviet troops to establish power in Kharkiv, Ekaterinoslav, and Oleksandrivsk. Her organization entitled “Free Fighting Squad” actively fought against the White Guard, the German occupation forces, and Ukrainian nationalists during the establishment of Soviet rule in Elisavetgrad (today’s Kropyvnytskyi). Marusya's fighters were well equipped; they possessed an armored platform and two cannons in their arsenal. Armored vehicles, horses, and wheelbarrows were transported in the carriages. If necessary, the echelon unloaded landing detachments operating in areas remote from the railway.

After the capture of Olexandrivsk by the Red Army in January 1918, Marusya with her then ally Nestor Makhno negotiated with the Bolsheviks to give the anarchists voices on the city's revolutionary council. The Bolsheviks twice tried Nikiforova for disobeying their commandment. First, in April 1918 she was acquitted, while for a second time in January 1919, Marusya was found guilty of discrediting the Soviet government and disobeying local councils. Marusya was sentenced to a kind of punishment — she was deprived of the right to hold responsible positions for six months from the date of sentencing and was handed over on bail to Apollon Karelin and Volodymyr Antonov-Ovsienko. Nikiforova returned to Ukraine and went to Huliaipole — an autonomous region under the control of Nestor Makhno. However, in order not to quarrel with the Bolsheviks, Makhno did not appoint Marusya as a commander of the Black Guard in the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. For six months, Marusya had been organizing propaganda work and preparing speeches for Makhno.

In June 1919, Makhno's army was outlawed by the Soviet authorities. Avoiding the war on two fronts -— against the Whites and the Reds, Marusya changed tactics. She started creating field terrorist groups that were to become the main force in the anarchist struggle. These groups operated in the rear of the whites in the Crimea, where Nikiforova and her husband were tracked down by white counterespionage. On August 11, they were arrested in Sevastopol, and on September 16, 1919, a court sentenced Maria to death by hanging. According to eyewitnesses, Nikiforova behaved defiantly in court and after the verdict began to scold the judges. She cried only saying goodbye to her husband, who was accused of hiding and who was executed by firing squad.