Alekseeva Emilia Avgustovna - a Russian revolutionary of Finnish origin, an activist of the Russian women's movement in the early twentieth century, who gained world fame and made a great contribution to the popularization of the holiday on March 8.
Emilia Solin, or Milya, as her parents affectionately called her, and then comrades in the Barnaul underground, mercilessly criticizing the shortcomings of their other colleagues, but always finding only good words for this blue-eyed and cheerful woman, is an undeservedly forgotten historical person, the ideal of an emancipated woman -revolutionaries of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Biography
The future activist was born in 1890 in cold Finland. The Alekseev family had serious financial difficulties at home, and because of this, they decided to move to Russia. There, the head of the family received the position of a caster at the Putilov factory. After some time, a major accident occurred at the plant (an explosion in a foundry), as a result of which his father was injured and died tragically, leaving the inconsolable family with almost no livelihood, dooming his widow and daughter to dire need.
This event forced Emilia immediately after school to seek a job. She was quickly lucky to get a job as a telephone operator. But she did not work there long. Alekseeva took the hottest part in the strike committee of the telephone exchange and went on strike several times, for which she was arrested. After serving a three-week period, Emilia was expelled from St. Petersburg and deprived of her right to live in this city for life.
Revolutionary activity
After the industrial boom of the nineties of the 19th century, at the beginning of the 20th century, Russia experienced a serious crisis, the so-called period of depression, when ordinary workers were oppressed and disenfranchised, and the authorities relied on an absolute monarchy that did not stop at the massacre.
Socio-political processes in the country led to an increase in revolutionary sentiment. The revolution of 1905-1907 ended with mass searches, arrests, repressions, exiles and reprisals. The discontent of the people grew. Women of the working class did not stand aside, keenly feeling the whole injustice of the existing system and its feudal survivals.
In 1910, Emilia was accepted into the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. There she took an active part in publishing the journal "Worker". Just before the first issue, almost everyone who worked on publications was arrested. But despite this, the magazine saw the light of time, thanks in large part to Alekseeva, who was actively collecting money and materials for the issue, convinced people that this publication was extremely important for working women, and easily found the right people to write materials.
At the end of 1914, the revolutionary took an active part in organizing protests against the First World War. The girl was caught and exiled to the small Siberian village of Kuragino for three years. Alekseeva there was able to develop a vibrant activity. She came close to the famous revolutionary E. D. Stasova, under her leadership a good political "educational program", corresponded with activists from Moscow and St. Petersburg, and also disseminated information about the decisions and actions of the Bolshevik party in Minusinsk district.
After three years of exile, Emilia arrived in St. Petersburg. The events of February 1917 allowed her to settle in the capital and again pursue a creative career in the journal "Worker". In the same year, she headed the committee of working women of the city of Petersburg, and in November held a conference on the organization of work of women workers, becoming the representative of the congress from the Ayvaz factory, where she worked at that time.
In 1918, the revolutionary was sent to Altai, where she was engaged in the promotion of anti-war ideas and ideals of Bolshevism. Having got a job in the Credit Union, Emilia lived on Mikhailovskaya Street in a house that quickly became a Bolshevik appearance. The noisy gatherings at which politics were discussed became popular among the Bolshevik milieu.
She was soft in communication, quiet and modest, but at the same time very energetic. Mila managed to be in ten places at the same time: distributing leaflets, collecting donations for revolutionary needs, convincing people of the advantages of Bolshevism, and helping political prisoners. For this energy, associates awarded Emilia the new nickname "Boiling Water".
In May of that year, a riot broke out in Barnaul, and the revolutionaries were sent to prison. Alekseeva was released two months later. After that, she continued to work under a false name - Maria Zvereva. In August 1919, she came into the view of Kolchak’s agents and was captured. Fearing torture and exposure, Emilia committed suicide with the help of poison.
